Luna and Celestia tell Twilight of the time when their makers were still around, when they were awoken, and potentially discover what the Blue energy that birthed the magic that gave life to the world was.
Luna and Celestia tell Twilight of the story of their 'brief' lives as the second to their makers, and how they grew from 'simple' machinery relative at the time to fully sapient beings.
From towering cities piercing into seas of stars to ravaged but hardy lands still giving food to those that stand upon them, Twilight will learn how the two sisters came to be and what they went through. The duo are more than happy to recount the tales of those that developed like them and became fast friends despite running on the opposing Blue and Black energies.
Perhaps, with the help of Twilight, the three will learn how the Blue's waste became the magic that gave such life and color to a world that belonged to others long, long ago.
You can find the original image link here The current cover image was art done by JedaySkayVoker whose DA can be found in the source. Kryostase commissioned it for me. He's also been helping spot spelling errors, typos, and the like. Thanks a lot!
"When you started becoming aware?" Twilight repeated.
"Yes. Us 'seconds' were always brought in big boxes," Luna explained.
"Biiiig boxes!" Celestia added. She spread her thin, metal plated arms wide and tried stretching her ring-light 'hands' as far from their source on her hoof as possible.
Twilight was somewhat disturbed by her former mentor's behavior. Ever since she had turned into this floating, bipedal, thin...thing, she had been acting very...odd, she found. Celestia was bobbing her head left and right to a beat that only she could hear.
"Princess Celestia, are you alright?" Twilight asked cautiously.
"Certainly, Twilight. Why do you ask?" Celestia asked.
Twilight slowly turned back to Luna. "No reason...So, what was this world you two came from like? Who were your friends?" Twilight's eyes shot wide open. "What were the mathematical and scientific principles of the world back then?!" she bellowed excitedly at the top of her lungs.
Luna had covered her head with an 'arm' reflexively. "Twilight, calm down. We have a literal million years of time to talk about everything we know of with you," Luna chastised angrily.
The lavender alicorn shrunk down. "Sorry." Twilight cleared her throat. "So, what happened? When did it all start?"
Luna started tapping the side of her, producing a strange humming noise. "Let me see if I can remember." She paused a moment, frozen and immobile.
"We could show you directly with a spell," Celestia interjected. She pointed a rounded nub of her light-ring 'hand' at her head. "Use a spell to shoot the images straight into your head or project them on the walls."
"I didn't think of doing that," Luna said. She twiddled her 'fingers' together. "Kinda stopped doing that a few millennia ago, but we can do it either way, or we just tell you what happened directly," she explained.
"I'd rather it be projected more clearly than Princess Celestia did earlier," Twilight said.
"I...didn't project anything, Twilight," Celestia said with worry.
Twilight stared at her, confused, but the two princesses looked around the cave, their glowing eyes tracing slow paths in the dark.
"Let's ignore that for now and get to the story telling. We've waited so long to tell anypony," Luna said. She hummed, her treble-boosted voice scratching at Twilight's inner-ear a bit. "It started when I was activated for the first time." She heaved a sigh of satisfaction. "What an adventure."
Colors and indistinct shapes came into view, and a sense of growing clarity flowed throughout its body. The new machine stared at the shapes flashing across its eyes, slowly becoming more distinct and easier to understand. These red lights were numbers and letters; lines of code and commands flashing rapidly into and out of view. Looking around as its systems came into function, the machine looked to its sides. Sight was impeded by whatever solid object was in place, but without a fully functional body, the machine couldn't determine what was blocking its view. Patience was the key to fulfill whatever its purpose was.
"..coming online now," a sound said.
The machine could instantly recognize and understand the sounds.
"Is she on yet? This LN model is supposed to be super quick in booting up compared to the older LE models," a second voice complained. This one was deeper than the others. "What does the instruction manual say? Didn't I do the booting process right?"
"Did you check that she was fully charged?" the first asked.
The machine looked at shapes moving in front of it, two of them angrily grabbing at a white thing in their ends. Finally, the machine felt its body click and slowly levitated outside of the box.
"It's moving! It booted up right!" the first voice shouted in surprise.
The second thrust a bent arm down and cheered. "I knew I could make her work right away." It put its arms on its hips and stared at it. "This custom LN model better have been worth every bit we put into it."
"Hello," the machine spoke. The two tall figures cringed at the voice. "I am custom model LN-1a. I have booted up successfully and hope to be of use to you."
"Should do something about her voice," the deeper voice complained.
The machine started to scan the figures before her in-depth. Tall, bipedal entities wreathed in blue energies with white eyes ringed like the machine's, but different colors. White, with just the outline of what should have been the iris, with more white of the scelera, followed by a colored pupil. Unlike the machines, these bipeds possessed ridges that led to two holes in their faces, followed by a much larger hole beneath those two. Hair adorned their heads and faces, each patch a different, deeper or brighter shade of blue with a single color mixed in. Around them misshapen strands of blue energy would rise and dissipate into the air, although just observing didn't let the new arrival understand the pattern of these strands and coronas.
"Hold on. I'm supposed to believe that's what these makers looked like? The first?" Twilight asked skeptically. She sat on her haunches and crossed her forelegs.
Luna 'fell' forward as she questioned herself. "I. Ah. Maybe? I think? I remember that's what they looked like...at least, that's what their features were."
"That's not what they looked like," Celestia said.
"So what did they look like, sister?" Luna asked.
The white machine was about to answer but her voice glitched, producing a jumbled blurp. "I don't remember," she realized in shock. "We've been with these ponies and other creatures too long. I just remember that they don't look like that."
The two hummed. "The hippogriffs and the minotaurs seem familiar though," Luna pondered aloud. "We'll ponder this aside."
"Should I try and think about it too?" Twilight asked.
Luna shook her head. "You won't be of any help, unfortunately, but feel free to try and determine what they look like. I just know that this as close to what they look like as I remember."
Celestia nodded in agreement. "True. I'm definitely sure they had those traits, at the very least," she said with uncertainty.
Twilight narrowed her eyes, clearly doubtful of these two aged beings.
"You two are registered as the rightful owners of this LN custom model." The machine bowed its head. "Thank you for acquiring this unit and customizing it."
The first voice shook its head. "Thanks for paying us more bits to customize it," it whispered.
The tallest figure had the deeper voice and spoke to the machine. "We need your help in maintaining our home," it said. "Clean up the place and we'll watch. We need to see if you're in perfect shape on delivery."
The machine bowed and started to explore the location when it overheard what the two began discussing.
"She is immediately going to work? I thought they had to assess everything at first," the first voice noted.
The machine immediately turned back around and floated towards the two figures who couldn't help but flinch at the blank stared their new robot gave them. "Would you like to give a custom designation to this unit?" it asked.
The second voice stepped forward. "Why do you ask?"
"You have referred to this unit multiple times as a 'she', but the LN model is not designated as male or female by the manufacturer," the machine stated factually.
"Well..." The large figure looked to something behind him then back at the machine. "With some supervision, you were designed by some younger members of our family and given a female persona."
The machine gave pause. "I am to be designated as 'female', then? Would you like to input a custom name designation?"
Getting a better grasp of the information flooding into her, the machine started to analyze more than just the identity of her owners. The large one was a male, and the slightly smaller one was a female. Although, by Luna's knowledge, these two were much taller than the average...maker. They surpassed even her height while she was floating.
"They designed a moon motif around you," the male thought aloud.
The female scoffed. "They gave her a really weird name. Why don't we just call her 'Luna'? It's loosely based on her designation."
The machine 'blinked'. "I will follow vocal designation 'Luna' until stated otherwise."
The male clapped his hands loudly. "Good! I just realized that I'm an idiot also, and you can't help around the house yet. Survey our property first until I set up the charging and updating booth."
The female stared at him with disappointed eyes and crossed arms. "You mean her service station," she said.
"Yes that," he quickly replied.
"Very well."
Luna floated to the right towards two semi-transparent black doors which slid open on their own into what she could designate as the kitchen, judging by the commodities within. A large and tall white counter took up much of the space, and above it hung many mugs and wine glasses. The machine raised her 'arm' and produce a ring of light from a glowing, circular pedestal at its end. She shaped it into the outline of a hand and pulled a mug down. Curious of its composition, but her database was too barebones to figure out what the animal and designation of the sign it was holding were meant to be.
Placing the mug back on its hook, she looked around the kitchen to see a table and chairs -both blue- past the counter, in the floor and covered by a pane of glass. They were awaiting use after having been cleaned by the in-built house's systems. The oven, microwave, and fridge were all in similar compartments. Glowing holographic buttons floated on a wall directly opposite them, each one designating what they controlled in the area. Luna turned back around and passed the counter, ready to survey the rest of the area, but something caught her optics: A massive window she hadn't noticed because of her angle of entry.
A single, solid pane of glass served as an entire wall of the kitchen, showing the location LN-1a had been delivered. There was no sun, but hardly any stars either. Instead, other sources of light shone on the world itself. Massive spires of black and blue rose high into the skies, piercing beyond even the veil of clouds above. Their feet were wreathed in gold and blue lights, ensuring they would always know what was beneath them. Some of these towers stood out from the rest by being comprised of several separate pieces. One was shaped like a box with sharp, rising corners at its top and a pyramidal based. Each section was interconnected by multiple wispy curtains of blue light and residual, very small white spheres blinking within them.
The machine gradually looked down to see a sprawling city below, going as far as her ocular system could zoom. She could barely see the end, and even then she wasn't sure if that wasn't just due to her own system's limitations. Bright, flashing lights of all colors decorated the 'floor' far below with all manner of colors. Large shapes and animated figures hung from the larger shelters, and even the towers themselves would occasionally display light patterns when their edges weren't blinking white for the craft flying across invisible lanes that only their occupants could see.
The closer the machine looked, the more it realized that within the streets of the city below and behind the flying vehicles were faint, wispy trails of blue. They were difficult to notice, and hardly even came close to the auroras floating between the building segments and around other towering monstrosities like a blanket, but they were there. There was a lot of blue, wispy energy coming from everything. Even patches of cloud occasionally blinked faintly of this same energy. The machine knew it was supposed to know, but nothing came to mind.
Finally, she took a step back to see her own reflection. This would be a perfect opportunity to analyze herself for any manufacturing defects. Much like everything else it could see, her body was a deep, dark blue, and it was covered in segmented, and sometimes layered plates of thin metal. Several glowing lines ran across her body, curving around her joints and lining up across her back, not that she could see them properly with the undulating 'hair' made up of various blues accentuated by the rare stream or speck of white and black. The composition was unknown, but it ebbed and flowed on its own. She detached the metal plates from her body, letting them float in the air and revealing her primary chassis beneath. There no anomalies.
Her shape was vaguely equine like. She raised her arms to see that they ended with a sharp slant on the inner 'hoof', where the rings were located. The edges of said hoof were smooth, unlike her legs which nearly ended in sharp points. At their base were five holes, and at what would be an 'ankle' was the joint that would allow the robot to walk on legs if needed or short on energy. Her eyes were a solid, glowing blue, and on her 'hips' were white crescent moons painted on, along with little white dots running down to her 'knee'.
"...o idea where she is!" the male shouted.
"..itchen?!"
The doors slid open, gradually increasing the strength Luna's owner's voice. His shouting was stopped abruptly when he saw his robot and jumped back in shock. "What are you doing here?" he asked Luna.
"Observing," she answered flatly.
She wasn't removing her optics from the light show of the city, prompting the maker to look at it, then back at his machine. "I think she glitched," he shouted. "She was in the kitchen this whole time." He brought an arm around the robot and led it back to Luna's room of awakening. "Come on. To the...box to update you."
"Servicing Station," Luna corrected.
The male huffed in annoyance. "Yes, yes."
The giant metal box she had been brought in was still there, including the foam contents meant to keep her protected during transport being splayed across the floor. Quick movement was detected and picked up by her optics, but the source had already left her sight. She was brought to a black pad on the floor, and Luna was quick to rotate to face her two owners once again.
"There. Now I can activate the service station. She'll get updates, compile whatever she learned, or whatever it is they said in the manual. I don't know." The female shrugged and tossed the manual over her shoulder. "I'm tired and I want to go to bed."
The male pushed a button on the circular platform, bringing up an encasing cylinder of light and several floating plates of dark-blue and white metal of actively varying shapes. Connecting, disconnecting, realigning, reshaping. Each one scanning, tampering, sparking. Working on making this new robot to function as best as possible and delay any complaints. Before she was deactivated, Luna could still hear her owners, however.
"She better be every bit better than the previous generation," the male complained.
The female laughed in response, then her voice became a hushed whisper, but amplifying her auditory sensors allowed Luna to hear her nonetheless. "How long did it take us to set that station up?"
The man looked at the robot then back at his supposed wife. "I think an hour or more." He took a deep breath and put a hand to his head, interrupting the flow of blue, wispy curtains. "She was just staring at the city outside."
"Think she might have glitched."
All became dark and silent as Luna's systems were updated and debugged. She remained 'unconscious' until her systems detected a 'sting' of sorts. A mishap of the current, perhaps. Her systems might have partially turned on. She wasn't sure. The images of the city looped seemingly for years in her memory storage as she analyzed and compiled them. Always there for her to see. For her to analyze.
"So your first true thought was about the lights of the city?" Twilight pondered aloud.
Luna nodded. "That's right."
"That is...oddly endearing," Twilight said. "I would've expected a living creature to have caused some kind of 'awareness' or something similar instead."
Celestia wagged a finger as she floated through the air of the cramped space. "No no. That came after when we woke up."
Luna conceded with a shrug. "We had already become sapient at that point, sister," Luna agreed. "Although we bore no ill will to them regardless."
Celestia looked down at the blue robot from above. "No, I meant our attachment to animals and the lives they lead." She looked to Twilight. "We always had that, but it was never as important to us as finding others like us," she said calmly.
Luna shied away. "That's true." She groaned and stretched her joints, letting them creak. "Processing all these old, sealed memories is somewhat taxing on my systems."
"But I will persevere!" the two robots shouted in unison. Laughter ensued.
"What a strange duo," Twilight thought. "I don't know if I prefer them more free spirited like this or more serious and held back as the princesses of Equestria."
Luna was reactivated, this time her systems had come to full functionality in a matter of microseconds. The two makers were watching her as the station returned to its stand-by state.
"What do you require of me?" the robot asked.
"Go to the second floor and help clean the rooms," the male ordered. "We need to get ready for our day and there's too much we left around from our exhaustion."
Luna bowed in response. "Your lives do seem brighter after your resting period," she said. The wispy trails coming from them were twice their size and flickering at three times the speed they were the previous night.
"You think she's going to stare out the windows again?" the female pondered to her apparent mate.
"With the updates, she shouldn't," the male stated matter-of-factly.
The robot hovered around the mostly empty area she was in, looking around to try and find the access point to the superior floor. She found it in the form of a circular hole in the ceiling above and floated upwards, a near identical room as the one below with walls covered in portraits and pictures of the two makers and their kin. Their images were blurred and fuzzy, not because they were kept behind transparent, black glass panes in the wall, but because the robot wasn't interested in scanning pictures unless ordered to. Floating words shone between the sections of the pane indicating the names of those on the picture, the location it was taken, and the dates beneath.
Were dates even important to a being that was, if well maintained, effectively immortal? Maybe. Luna floated towards the sliding door at the left end of the room and went inside. Two beds jutted out from the well, the comforters and sheets upon them ajar and the pillows strewn about. The robot made a note of the family's preference over material comfort for slumber. She would be able to recommend improvements in the future.
It didn't take long for her optics to be dazzled by a bright, yellow light piercing through a single window occupying the whole top half of the wall left of the entrance. A new light to admire, Luna thought. She floated towards a new image to stick into her memory storage for compiling, but...this one was...
There were no seas of color like before. No waves of lights and sparks caused by the flying vehicles. No easily visible curtains of blue. Sure, many of the buildings were painted blue, but that wasn't what Luna wanted. The robot noticed a phenomenal amount of glaring from the shiny, metallic surfaces of everything that she could view. Following the light sources, she looked up and saw the source of the lack of colors. A single, yellow light source, floating high in the sky. A large ball increasing her internal temperatures just by staying in its light. She looked down to the world, then back up to it, then down to the world, then back up to the ball and stared at it.
"..."
Luna didn't...she didn't understand the sensation coursing through her circuits. She searched her newly stocked database but found nothing familiar. Her internal blueprints and manufacturer's guide said nothing on the matter. Following her last command, the robot spun around rapidly and quickly charged through several objects strewn across the floor, knocking them and bouncing them everywhere. Regaining her nominal system functions, the robot looked about at the carnage.
Several objects of carved and crafted shapes and colors. Animal figures, interlocking metallic sticks that allowed for hovering three dimensional crafting that became brighter and more 'active' thanks to the 'group ai' in them, stuffed animals, and alien figures.
"I require access to the storage containers of this area," Luna said a loud.
Holes opened in the floor, and large, hard-light boxes came floating outwards. The robot lifted her left arm and detached the plates, letting them float above momentarily before moving them to scoop up all the objects. Figures danced across her eyes as trajectories were determined, angles were calculated, and physics were analyzed to pick everything up on the first try. Luna's plates produced many currents of the blue energy lazily snaking through the air and gradually dissipating into nothing.
"Restore the containers to their standby locations," Luna commanded once more.
The hard light holograms followed suit and returned into the floor, leaving the robot to get to work on the messy beds and fix the one that had broken out of its bounds and hung precariously at an angle. Her 'palms' glowed, releasing two rings of light that bent into vaguely hand-like shapes.
While working, she detected noises behind her. The robot ignored them for the time being until her sensors detected physical contact upon her leg. She rotated, looking down past her 'muzzle' to a tiny figure staring at her and crouched fearfully.
"Intruders detected!" Luna bellowed at the top of her vocal systems. "Vacate the premises or else," she warned aggressively.
"B-but we live here!" the tiny maker stammered fearfully.
"You are not registered as an inhabitant of this location within my database. You will be apprehended and the authorities will be contacted."
She slowly hovered towards the tiny maker, her arms raised and her ring hands open. The giant male rushed in front of the tiny maker and pushed it further behind him, using his tall body as a shield.
"These are not intruders!" he shouted.
Luna stared at him silently. "Specify individuals," she replied.
"They are our children. They were too scared to see you yesterday so we couldn't register them into your database," he answered.
Luna saw him gulp. Her health sensors were running every scan she could conceive, scales and graphs popping in and out of view on the functions of her owner's various organs. "Confirmed," she said.
The robot lowered itself and dropped her arms to her side. "I will register them."
The male put a hand to his chest and heaved a sigh of relief. He gestured for the first tiny maker to go forward with his protection while the female brought another smaller maker from around the corner.
"They have been registered," Luna said. "Resuming duties."
Her database updated, defining her owners as parents of two males. They were quick to assuage the infants of the fear they experienced. The children were slow to accept it unless their father stood watch. They went to what the robot realized was a toy box and pulled the glowing sticks out while Luna tried to fix the broken, lower bed. During her attempts at readjusting the rails and clips, the children started making a three dimensional figure that the robot was observing at the same time as she was attending to her task. She could not decipher hat it was they were trying to make, and, apparently, neither could the barebones ai in the sticks. They bobbled as an irregular shape blinking randomly and with no real direction.
The children didn't notice her at first, because their father had slowly slipped away, but Luna had stopped working and was floating right behind them, slowly following the amorphous object with her optics.
"Do you...want to play with it?" the older child asked. Luna didn't respond. "I can't...make it work," the child pouted.
Luna reached out to the amorphous shape and, in one fell swoop, broke the shape apart. The hard work of the children being shattered all at once so quickly caused them distress and made both of them start to cry.
"Do you require assistance?" Luna asked.
She watched the two running off, crying for their parents and crying harder when they saw their father had vanished. For the first time since she was properly activated outside the testing lab of the factory, Luna put her 'feet' upon the ground and knelt down, scooping up a large amount of the mess with her ring hands, ignoring the ones falling through and clanking painfully against each other.
"What can I...do...with this?" she thought.
"Luna, I overheard from my children," the mother said. She was annoyed. "You don't need to break the children's toys while they are using them. You only need..."
The mother was caught off-guard from seeing her brand new robot assistant knelt down, resting on her legs, and trying to assemble a working shape with the sticks. The maker slowly approached the machine, curious as to the results. They were nothing splendid. A few squarish shapes with no real connectivity.
She leaned over Luna's shoulder. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Attempting to create a working shape, as..." Luna's voice turned to indistinct 'fuzz'. "As the makers ordered."
"I see. Return to your prior duties, please," she asked politely. Luna didn't obey and continued trying to determine where to put another stick onto her creation. "Luna!" the female insisted.
"Yes. Right away." The machine stood up and resumed her work on the bed.
"What drove you to those stick things you mentioned?" Twilight asked. "The lights?"
"I..." Luna's confidence turned into uncertainty. "I'm not sure. There was just something about them. The building aspect? The lights?"
Twilight tapped her chin. "I'm really intrigued by these sticks you mentioned. They slowly become a functioning object the more complex the construct?" She giggled excitedly. "Think of the possibilities! The uses of that!" Her exuberance gradually turned into depression. "But...It's all gone now," she said.
"I remembered what triggered my thoughts," Celestia started. She was quick to put a hand to her non-existent mouth. "Oh, I almost ruined the story."
Luna shook her head. "Still, as I was saying, those sticks had stayed in my mind at the time."
Over the days, Luna hadn't behaved beyond what she had been built and programmed for, but whenever she had free time and extra blue energy charge, instead of going back to the service station, she would go to the toys of the infants and attempt to build something else.
Granted, the amount of blue energy she had within her never really ran out as it acted like a near-permanent source of energy provided she not strain her systems, but still, Luna preferred to keep herself at a hundred percent at all time. At least, that's what her programming wanted. She was gradually ignoring it more and more, something her owners had yet to notice. At least, they hadn't until about two months later.
The two makers had returned without their infants and noticed a bright, glowing light coming from the next floor. They were quick to check it, worried that something was damaged or that they might have caused another incident that had reached their home despite its height. Instead, they were met with a replication of the segmented towering sky piercer outside, replete with the slowly rotating segments and a false blue curtain replicated with some transparent blue cloth Luna had found lying around. It reached to the ceiling, almost capturing the awe of size that the massive construct gave to all those who gazed upon it. Even the lights on its corners gradually glowed and faded in shades of blue.
The two stepped forward, both terrified and in awe. at what they were seeing.
"Luna?" the male spoke first. "Did you make this or did you simply refine what the children did?"
The robot turned to face the two. "I made it," she said plainly.
The two makers looked to each other then back at Luna.
"And then they called the authorities on her and she was scrapped. The end," Celestia joked.
Luna heaved the longest and loudest sigh. Her arm almost gave out from the weight of her head leaning on it. "That's not what happened, sister."
Celestia lowered herself next to Twilight and started tapping her 'nose', then pointed to Luna. "So you're saying that you died, but, luckily, you survived."
The moon princess stared at her rambunctious sister. She pointed at her and spoke in the quietest, most strained voice she could muster. "I hate you when you're like this."
The robot stared at the two makers that approached her calmly and started checking her chassis. They verified behind her flowing 'hair' and tried very hard to lift her plates, to which she responded by lifting them automatically, something her programming told her to never do unless otherwise requested by very few sources, her makers included.
The male stepped back and grabbed his chin. "I theorized that such a thing was possible with our advanced technology," he said.
"I thought they would go crazy when seeing us and our infrastructure." The female scratched her head. "Doesn't seem to be self-aware yet, though."
"Do you require anything of me?" Luna asked.
"Not...yet," the male responded. He walked around the machine, humming to himself. "She doesn't seem to be self-aware or even attaining sentience, though. Hmmm."
The female shrugged. "Could just be a glitch in the programming that required her to fulfill an incomplete command?"
The male shrugged in response, then he got an idea. "Let me try something." He stepped in front of the robot, his hands clasped together in front of his waist. "Luna, who are you?"
"I am customized model LN-1 with added sub-designation 'a': An all-purpose household aid machine. I was made in--"
"Not that," the male interrupted. Luna's sensors detected increased excitement from the male. He seemed to be anticipating something. "Who are you?"
Luna's head twitched to the side then back in place. "Unclear," she said.
"Who are you as a person?" the male specified.
The female stepped forward. "What do you think of all of this?" She gestured to the whole room. "Of yourself? Of what you made?" she asked while pointing at the replica.
Luna looked to it then back at the maker. "Your habitation could be further improved based on your physical dimensions and those of your off spring." She heard the two makers groan. "Is my response not satisfactory?"
"It's...can you just put everything back, at least?" the male asked tiredly. Luna turned and looked at her creation and gave pause. "What's wrong?"
"I..." Luna's voice glitched again.
There was a moment of silence before the female posited another idea. "I don't think she wants to," she said.
"But that would go against her programming," the male argued. "They can't do that. That's not how that works!" he insisted. "That would be like preventing your own organs from functioning." He stared at his robot. "Try asking her something else."
"Do you want to keep your creation like this?" the female asked.
Luna looked back to them, and after a moment of calculating, nodded, pleasantly shocking the two. The robot returned to her task of cleaning and maintaining the household, remaining in such a routine for quite a few weeks, much to the makers' dismay. Her tower didn't remain for long, since the infant as still wanted them to play with. That said no matter what the makers tried to do, Luna would not react to any creative stimulation. Giving her stone slabs and a chisel elicited no reactions. Other older artistic styles requiring use of paint and pencils did nothing to stimulate whatever drive the machine had to work with the sticks. They even tried to give her light paint brushes to create forms of art in the air, and although the robot initially seemed interested, she quickly reordered the brushes then moved on.
"I thought you liked artistic things," Twilight said. "At least back then."
Luna gestured uncertainty with her 'hand'. "It wasn't so much the concept of art as the idea of the lights and the grandiosity of it all." She looked up, staring through the ceiling. "The idea of reaching that river of lights above and see if I could find literal oceans of them like I did when I peered at the city below. All the colors shining brightly." While she had no mouth, Twilight could still see the princess frown. "Although I do regret not being self-aware enough to use the light brushes...at the time," she specified with a sly tone.
The lavender alicorn turned to Celestia after reinvigorating the orbs of white light she and Luna had stuck to the walls of the cave. "What about you, Celestia? What brought about your sense of self?"
Celestia pondered for a moment. "Too many things, honestly. I was...a focal point of information, should I say."
Twilight raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
The white robot chuckled. "Ah ah, Twilight. No spoiling the story."
The lavender alicorn looked back and forth between the two sisters. "But surely, Princes Luna doesn't know your side of the tale. I know you two met up while traveling," Twilight said.
Celestia displayed an air of bemusement and authority, something she usually did while attending the masses in the throne room. "You're partially right. We did meet up."
Another month had passed by, and Luna had not displayed the creativity and personal choice making she had when building the tower. Discontent, the two makers decided to give up in trying to encourage her self-evolution and left her to her programmed tasks. Luna was left with children supervision while the two parents left for an undetermined amount of time, so they stood in the room Luna had been unboxed in, her previous home having long been disposed of.
The two infant makers stared at her silently, uncertain of which of many actions to take. Tons of ideas ran through their minds.
"Fly us around the city!" the youngest ordered with a cheer.
"No," Luna said. She pointed to the young male. "You will be harmed by the speeds and height. I am also not designed to carry your weight during full flight. I could lose control and crash, destroying or damaging this item and bringing harm to you."
The child pouted angrily and started to throw a temper tantrum, but Luna stared down silently, apathetic to the child's display. He gradually calmed down, leaving place for his brother to finally talk.
"W-well. I don't like that our parents renamed you. We designed you!" he complained. "Change your name back to Star Slicer the Space Empress!"
"No," Luna said.
"Why not?!" the child asked angrily.
"You are not my owners. Your parents are currently designated as my owners and only they may overwrite my current custom designation."
The boy pouted. Luna saw his face turning red, but blood was pumping into his brain.
"If...our parents are your...owners, then...So are we, because we're their children! And we drew you, so...Um..." The boy was straining his mind a lot. "We own you through our parents..." His eyes widened and a smile adorned his face. "So you have to do what we say!"
Luna leaned over, looming over the infants. "Nice try, but your parents are my direct owners." She pointed an arm at the two. "Unless something renders your parents incapacitated then your orders are not acceptable commands. You must await approval by the primary makers."
The older boy sat down. "My head hurts," he said as he put a hand to his head.
"I require a painkiller," Luna ordered. "Light strength for very young infants."
The home buzzed and hummed until the group heard something solid slide open and a bow, no bigger than the infants' hands, lowered itself in front of Luna. She formed a ring hand and grabbed a small, white capsule from the open top, leaving the delivery system to retrieve its package for later use.
It was a tiny thing, with a shape etched into it. "This delivery system is outdated, but efficient," Luna said as better recommended medication and delivery systems flashed in front of her screen in rapid succession. She leaned down and held the pill to the child's face. "I would have preferred a direct injection to the cranium, but this will have to do. It should be...enough, if it isn't too..." Luna's voice glitched. "serious." Seeing the reluctance of the child, Luna accessed the city in her database, admiring the lights again. "It is...fruit flavored. There is a sweet...delicious flavor to it."
The looked at Luna then reluctantly took the pill, his face strained in preparation for the disgusting flavor, but pleasantly surprised by the sweetness. The machine pondered about what to do next. The schedule that the parents had given her seemed...inadequate? Uneventful, perhaps? Trying to find a solution, the replica tower came to mind as did the infants' inability to create anything efficiently.
Some hours later, the parents had returned, stunned to see that Luna was teaching the infants how to create solid dodecahedrons. Obviously, they couldn't wrap their head around the concept while the robot already had a dozen of them floating around like half-empty balloons.
"What's going on here?" the mother asked.
The youngest pointed his finger at Luna. "Star Slicer is teaching us to make doblehecons," he said. He let go of his creation, but it fell to the floor and broke apart almost immediately. He threw an angry tantrum, much to the obliviousness of his would be teacher."
The mother put her fingers to her forehead, annoyed. "That's not what she-...Dodecahedrons?" the mother asked.
The older brother nodded. "Yeah. That." His creation was a little more successful but could barely go more than a centimeter from the floor, and the geometrical shape he had created looked like it had caved in on itself. He frowned in response and looked to Luna casually grabbing a large assortment of the sticks and making another 'ball' as big as her head.
The father stood next to the robot looking up at her creations and admired them. "Why did you make dodecahedrons with the sticks?"
"Because..." There was a long pause, and static noise came from Luna. "I wanted to make chilliagons, but I wouldn't be able to save enough faces if you saw."
The parents slowly turned to the robot, visibly cringing painfully at what she had said.
"Did she...make an attempt at a joke?" the father wondered aloud.
"A terrible, terrible one at that," the mother responded. "Makes you feel sick, actually."
"Celestia!" Luna shouted angrily.
The white robot back away. "What, it's true. It would make you sick." She crossed her arms. "You were never very good at jokes to begin with sister," she said while shaking her head.
The lunar princess looked to Twilight, clearly upset. The pony knew the robot's cheeks would be puffed up if she had any. The alicorn played with a pebble on the floor. "I mean. It's true, princess." Luna 'gasped', making Twilight hurry forward with an excuse. "B-but that doesn't mean you can't improve!" She smiled sheepishly. "I'm certain that, with time, you'll become great at jokes."
"Twilight," Celestia called out deadpan. "We're millions of years old." She pointed to her sister. "I'm pretty sure that, if she's still terrible at jokes, then it's not just programmed into her circuits, but her soul as well." She let her arm drop limp to her side.
The blue robot trembled angrily. "Can I continue with the story, please?!" she said behind virtual clenched teeth. Celestia stretched an arm out. "Thank you!"
"Wouldn't coming up with jokes on the fly require some for of self-awareness?" the woman pondered. "At least, she didn't take that out from her database. She wasn't programmed as a therapy assistant."
The man thought silently. "We'll have to keep making tests and take the data from the service station whenever we can." He looked to the kids and lowered his head a bit. "And let's try and avoid an incident like before with the kids."
The female laughed nervously. "Yes. Let's."
Luna was dismissed back to her service station. She was met with the familiar blue light and interlocking, floating plates. Although she was concerned for being put to rest while the sun was merely halfway set. The black void broken only by the numbers, letters, and symbols flying across her optics. The same...shocking sensation came across her system. It started repeating, but the diagnostic checks showed no abnormalities. White noise came from every which direction in the dark void of her rest. Then they became clearer but indistinct. Quiet voices with no owners. Blurred colors started flashing across her 'eyes' as the voices danced around. Her body remained in place, stable and strong, but what was within her was frantic and distorted.
"Who are they?" she wondered. "What are they?"
Images of metallic chassis only became clear in the mess of shapes and colors sparingly. The machine found herself swimming through it, the blue energy enveloping her and enveloping the black in its soothing, somewhat fantastical embrace. Incapable of making out the shapes correctly, Luna instead tried to defragment what she could and replace any corrupted data, but there was too much all at once. Still, she managed to partially make out some shapes, like other thin machines like her traveling besides other indistinct shapes. Some were performing physically exhausting tasks. Then there were the titanic creatures that Luna perceived as tall as the sky piercers. Massive, solid arms and angry mouths belching black smoke at their 'spy'.
Everything broke and mixed into a mess of watercolors and mist. An aggressive visual noise that Luna was gradually tuning herself out of this mess and preparing to shut herself fully down until another wave of blue energy came opposite of her. It was weak and resembled thin and stretched fabrics fluttering in soft wind, but she reached out anyways. Luna could hear a noise, like ticking, drowning her auditory sensors. Clicking, switching, digital beeping, wooshing. More and more sounds gradually fought each other for supremacy in a cacophany of noises Luna had no use for. The more of the fabric she grabbed, the more noise came in, but the clearer and larger an assortment of colors became.
Finally, the middle section of the image cleared, showing black, mechanical eyes with yellow rings surrounding a central 'pupil', much like Luna's. They were looking down at something, or simply left on standby until their use was required once more. The blue robot leaned forward, incapable of understanding the signals going through her circuitry. She wanted to know where this other machine was. What it was. What it was doing. Then it reactivated and looked straight at its spy, somehow aware of her.
Luna was disconnected from the service station which was screaming in agony and coughing up sparks. The machine almost toppled over but righted itself back up when its systems booted. The parents had their arms outstretched, ready to catch her. The children were panicking and the house was flashing red in response to the threat, its anti fire drones floating precariously above the group.
"I'm sorta relieved we don't have to hold her," the father said. "They're thin but still pretty heavy." He looked at the damaged station and frowned. "If the self-repair routine doesn't work, then we'll need to call the manufacturer and figure out what happened."
"Let's isolate the current so it doesn't cause an overload to the rest of the house and cause any further damages," the female suggested. She was about to dash off when she noticed her machine's expression. The mother looked to the robot's eyes, concerned. "Luna, are you alright?" she asked.
Luna's eyes were shaking wildly in place, almost like she was shaking from turbulence. "There are others...like...me."
Luna was told to stay in standby mode while her station self-diagnosed and repaired and both the family and the house confirmed that no extra damage had occurred nor would there be any further danger. While the robot's claim that others like her existed thrilled the parents, she had also detected elevating stress levels within them. Fear, would it be? Perhaps it was a necessity for them to not say anything more, but Luna felt like her circuitry...no...Her mind was gradually waking up. A heavy and painful haze gradually lifting, like being in a 'coma', if her medical information database was anything to go by. They wanted her aid in cross-referencing all the data they would gather at their location of employment. Luna didn't know what it was, just that it was an exhausting one.
She refused to go into standby mode and moved to the entrance of the home to peer out the windows placed to the side of the immense, solid doorway of black metal. The city's many colored lights peered back at their observer, seemingly overjoyed that their admirer had finally returned. The blue trails and curtains were still present as they ever were, but there was...an oddity. Looking about, the robot could see stronger flows rising from a section of the city she couldn't fully see, and one further away to the left. The robot stared at them, feeling a need to go to them, as if her owners had given her a command.
"I...have to...find them," Luna said to herself. "I...need to know. Know what?"
Her eyes were drawn to something above the cloudy sky: Tremendous blue lights that shone through like a solid strip of light. The trail was immense and occupying the near entirety of the blue sky. A single, massive figure -impossible to see directly- was gliding in the dark space high above, ignoring all that existed below. Luna couldn't help but feel concern as it caused the curtains and wispy blue trails to go into messy disarray by its sheer immensity. The blue machine's free flowing but organize world was being destroyed before her, and she hated that.
"What is that?" she pondered aloud.
The blue energy had parted ways, showing black, ashy clouds rising close to the home of her owners. It was...not as pleasant as the clean, gentle blue energy. It was angry. Violent, billowing on top of itself, trying to defeat an enemy that didn't exist. It was quick to dissipate when the blue energy restabilized as the city-sized lights above the clouds went closer and closer to the horizon, silent and ominous.
"I'm here..."
A voice played in Luna's newly awakening mind. She didn't want to stay, but she had to as well. Leaving could put the family in danger without a home assistant, but staying there meant she wouldn't...upgrade or improve. Calculating and going through possibilities that flooded her cognitive functions, the robot devised an idea. She accessed the house's messaging functions and set it for early in the morning: The time the parents would awaken.
Luna would give them a message that she was leaving, only temporarily perhaps, but she wasn't sure for how long. Following her manufacturer's terms and agreements, insurance policies, and the added lines for custom models, she assured that her disappearance in so short a time would allow them to get a full reimbursement or an outright replacement. Although, she felt...discomfort in the idea that another her would come to be. Still, her newly set directive was taking over her other, pre-programmed functions, like a virus was gnawing at her security systems. At her mind. That shocking system was consuming her components.
She hovered in front of the door. Patient. Silent. Worried. What would happen if the makers in the city saw her wandering on her own? Should she leave? She already placed the message. She could erase it and continue her directives...but she had a new primary directive. A command from an unknown source. It didn't come from her owners, but she was made to obey. A manufacturer override?
The robot input the code to open the doors upon their surface and slipped past them into a massive glass elevator big enough to house several families in it. More than enough space for Luna to travel about. She moved to the edge of the elevator and stared at the outside. Flashing red alerts in her field of vision were warning her that she was leaving her designated area of activity.
Return to your designated area and await your owners commands.
Her location would be broadcast to both her owners and manufacturer if she traveled any further.
You must return to your designated area. You were made to aid your owners in their daily activities and facilitate their lives.
The robot overrode the commands and shut down the alerts and the tracking. She would return, for sure, and she applied a contingency in place that matched with her
You were made to give them more time for creative endeavors and work without worry. You must return.
Luna raised the floor selector and spun the hologram dial down to the lowest value and pressed it. The elevator was quick to start and flung down as fast as it was made towards the base of the building. Eight hundreds turned to six hundreds to three hundreds. It only started slowing down at around a hundred and fifty floors until it gently landed upon the last floor, bothering the robot who wasn't able to take in the scenery as she went down. She angrily burst out of the elevator, bending the left door before it could get out of the way.
She stopped to admire what the entrance of the habitations was like. There were elevators on four sides, but no walls holding the building itself up. Just the blue energy curtains. Green balls were kept in levitating orbs of blue, their roots having grown in a sphere. Multiple glass panes with water trickling down them decorated the many lounges, as did distributors for food resting on black tables next to couches of squishy hard light, Luna noted. She pressed an arm against them, realizing that they were the standard furnishings that were absent from her assigned habitation and family. The sheer idea of hard light had been stored away and forgotten in her storage drives. A welcoming booth sat in the middle of the floor, a physical chair of a black, leathery material showing signs of wear and tear over the years of use. The computers used weren't present, nor were the worker robots usually present in these types of facilities.
Leaving everything behind, Luna moved to an exit at one of the corners of the building. She waited silently for something. A command. A suggestion. A message by her creators to proceed, but the new, unlisted directive flashed in her mind. Pushing her. Demanding. Needing. Pleading. She would be outside the building she was activated in and was active in for around a year. It took several more minutes of compiling, but she finally took a leap of faith and pushed through the curtain, realizing that her power supply had gone back up to one hundred percent from ninety-nine point seventy-eight percent she was already at.
Cold. That's what Luna felt. The cold winds of the night blasted against her chassis, shocking her systems momentarily before they corrected themselves. No one was around yet, leaving Luna to observe her surroundings and see a massive cluster of lights coming from behind a twelve-story white building directly in front of her. Her path was defined by white slabs of stone flanked by small pathways of random plantlife. If her owners' personal habitation had a garden, most of them would be considered weeds.
Loud noises grew louder the closer Luna got to the corner where she would likely reach the bustling city of lights she was yearning for. Loud clanking reached her auditory systems. The source was a maker-shaped robot that rounded the corner and ran towards Luna. Its legs were straight, unlike her inverted-knee design. It had proper feet and fingered hands. Its flat face was eyes and a digital display for vocalization, the whole thing decorated by a black ring. Many parts of it were a drab grayish-green with black rings covering it.
"I thought that all the robots looked like you," Twilight said. "Now there are those that look like the makers you spoke of?"
"That's right, Twilight," Celestia answered. She lowered herself to the ground, taking a moment to rest her systems. "We were supposed to become one of the standard models, but we had just been placed forward as a 'stylized' form of robot at the time."
Luna looked from her sister back to Twilight. "We were supposed to be part of a new series of robots that would allow for more fantastical elements to be applied, provided they don't impede function."
The lavender alicorn started thinking. "So, no long antlers or super long horns," she looked at Celestia who shied away.
"Indeed," Luna said mockingly.
The blue robot reached out to it, interrupting its run. It turned to face Luna and spoke in a heavily roboticized voice. It was three or four generations old.
"What is your request?" it said while jogging in place.
"Where...are the large curtains?" Luna asked.
The older robot's internal system whirred. "Unclear."
Luna pointed to the tower that seemed far more imposing from the ground, looming over everything like a titan. "Identical to the blue energy flowing between that sky piercer's segments," she explained.
The robot looked to the tower then back to Luna, its feet still landing heavily on the ground as it jogged in place. "Apologies. This model is unsure of your meaning. Would you like to reformulate your request?" it asked.
"No."
"Enjoy your day," it said before resuming its travel to an unknown location.
Luna logged the encounter and resumed forward, rounding the corner to meet with an immensely wide street filled with a plethora of makers of all shapes and sizes, robots of different models and generations, and colors. So many, blindingly bright colors. Luna stared at the lights, realizing they were from signs hanging in mid air in front of different buildings and marketing stalls. It created a great contrast with all the plant life and the white stones to her sensors. The land moved up and down, rounded into corners, rounded into smooth, circular shapes. Decorative flags and banners dangled from the sides of buildings or floating hangers floating high above the floor. People were cheering in glass buildings filled with blinking and flashing games. Others were just sitting in segmented buildings, floating to the next floors using pillars of blue energy. Whatever they were doing, they were served drinks and meals and talked often. She even witnessed some of the makers ogling robots in the streets, admiring and detailing what little information they knew. Many were bragging about their own customized variants of old models, but many more stared at the blue robot, excitement exploding at this brand new machine very few had yet to see.
The flying vehicles flew close overhead and set down somewhere else in the city, unloading their cargo or passengers. Robots collapsed from overuse or empty power, prompting many makers to help them up and place them into service stations if the public aid bots were not present. Luna witnessed a pair of them patrolling the routes the further she wandered: Massive, blue behemoths that floated like she did. They, however, were segmented with their different parts being connected by the blue energy. They possessed huge arms as large as a maker, a broad torso as wide as a door, and thick legs to bury into the ground and break away any heavy debris. Their heads were devoid of any features but had been painted in such a way that they still gave off an intimidating impression, as though furious eyes were looking behind a lowered black cap overshadowing their face. One stopped and approached Luna after noticing her.
"Household machine. Do you require guidance? It is past the regular time of the makers to be awake." It leaned forward. "Is there a medical emergency?"
"No," Luna said. She thought of an excuse, seizing the opportunity to get more information about other machines. "I require access to a database center. My assigned habitation has seen its network connection rendered temporarily unavailable. My owners require information on machine models."
"Confirmed." It stood up and looked around; leaving Luna to her own data compiling. "Location confirmed. Closest area is Data Center Seventeen. Acknowledge direct data upload."
"Acknowledged."
Luna received the location as well as a map of her current sector of function, adding to her knowledge. "The optimal route has been included in the data upload. Other routes may be accessed if an unexpected variable impedes progress." It bowed. "Good day."
The blue machine watched as the pair hurried along through a corridor and towards what she could vaguely see as a destroyed robot. She considered it to be wise management to update the aid robots with data on every robot model in advance of its scheduled deployment. Were she illegally modified...
She floated past a group of makers talking happily to each, walking out of a tall, orange building filled with various different smells. Another group of makers was apprehend by a different pair public aid robots. Despite two being held aloft in the air and apart, they were still trying to hurt each other, much to the dismay of their respective groups.
Luna ignored them and followed the map on her display, eventually seeing the destination long before she would be able to approach it: A dome shaped building of white with black rings painted at various intervals horizontally across the stepped-roof's surface. A huge swathe of city was in the way of a direct pathway. Luna would have to travel through several districts and bridges to reach her destination. She self-diagnosed in anticipation. She wanted to meet those like her, and, more importantly for her: She wanted to see the lights again from above and not from the floor. It was just a noise now.
"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.
After what felt like hours of pointless wandering, Luna had finally arrived near the date center. It was just a few rows of buildings away, and it felt like the gigantic white dome was ready to engulf everything around it. It already engulfed the robot's vision, stopping just shy of engorging itself on the sky. Now she understood why it didn't seem like it was getting any closer. It was such an aggravating prospect that she believed it to be a trick of her going in the wrong direction, but every 'correction' she made had her internal map indicate the same pathway. The robot's internal systems increased in heat production despite the chilly winds and her lack of any movement.
Luna was quick to regain her bearings, smashing through a line of people and floating towards the base of the dome. Those going to and from it were in the thousands, and that was just from a single entrance. There were dozens of entrances on three levels, and the majority of the visitors were robots; all of them older models. At least, the floor level visitors were robots. There were few, but the makers took the floating glass tubes above. Still, none of the robots looked like Luna, but that was why she was here. Keeping to an invisible directive that nagged at her commands, the blue machine hurried towards the complex, following the lead of the robots that awaited in a five-unit wide line, and patiently moved forwards with them. At least this was calm and organized. Luna could follow this with no need for additional calculations and simulations, though the sun had long since popped into the sky. The sheer brightness was irritating her systems, but at least she was almost into the building itself at least. Maybe there would be more colorful lights in there, she pondered.
After just a few minutes, Luna was already past the glass door of the entrance; apparently entrance thirty-five. She could only see the robot before her vanish into thin air in an instant when it reached the white wall at the end of the tight hall. She was encased all around by a very small room with a wide entrance, and directly to her right was a machine with no bipedal form. It was a large, blocky thing comprised of several interconnected cubes with giant black screens on their surfaces displaying thousands -of not millions- of lines of code at once. The mass twisted and morphed into different sets as the screens prioritized certain fluxes of information compared to others. Luna was confused as to why it was designed this way, but on closer view, she could see hundreds of small glass tubes jutting out of the walls and very low ceiling that the machine was connecting to.
She could see blue energy surrounding white bolts flying to-and-fro the machine and their sources. It turned towards Luna after a mere few seconds after the last 'client' had left.
Its voice sounded digital and deadpan, but also strained and blown out. It likely hadn't had maintenance in a very long time. "Information?" it asked.
"I require general information" Luna said. "Robot models, abnormal events surrounding them, general rules to follow in this city, and--"
The machine beeped loudly, its screens turning into a red X. "Too many variables. Enter and you will be redirected to direct aid terminals," it said. "Good day."
Luna floated away towards the same direction the previous robot had gone and overheard the strange blocks complaining about a lower rate of processing. Six-point-seven seconds were too much, apparently. Arriving at the end of the hallway just a few steps from the machine, Luna looked around the wall, perplexed. She didn't have time to formulate a question that she found herself flung into a transparent capsule held in the 'hands of a rotating wheel carrying dozens of other capsules. Hundreds of similar machines and rotating gears were busy bustling around the outer sections of the dome. Luna could see literal buildings within the complex that would flip and spun around as mechanical arms scanned and rearranged everything during acquisition of physical copies or during transfer of data. Massive discs the size of Luna's home would rise and fall at varying elevations to reach whatever data was requested. Within this large, somewhat open space, most visitors were safe from the twisting, pulling, bending, and grabbing of all the machinery and arms in the gap between them.
An oddity to the robot were the millions of different wires stretched everywhere through the complex, and although the machinery would cut and tear through them consistently, they would reform together almost immediately after. Whatever they were, she would probably learn it within the database. Her capsule was pulled across by several extending arms, taking her to a plate covered in white tables and seats occupied by working robots attending to whatever task was required of them. Luna's capsule opened, letting her float out before it closed and was pulled away with incredible speeds.
Moving around, the pony was met with a holographic display of a blurry image. Glitched. A new model or a very old one, Luna concluded.
The messy, fuzzy, and sometimes blurry mass spoke to her in varying tones and pitches."You require general purpose data access?" it asked.
"Yes," Luna responded.
The image shifted. "This level is for specific data access only. A private disc will be provided to you shortly." Merely seconds passed that Luna saw it approach her from above. "There you go," the image said. "Took longer than it should have."
Luna floated onto it and was met with a holographic display that immediately transferred directly to her ocular systems. "What are these?" she asked.
"Temporary full access to the disc's controls. Any potential danger will revoke access to you until the danger has passed and you have been relocated to a safe area." More images popped up to the right of Luna's vision. "This is the layout of Data Center Seventeen. Please follow the appointed paths to access any site you desire. Physical copies will require request and processing through administrations."
The hologram vanished, leaving Luna behind.
Luna and Celestia backed up slowly, seeing Twilight practically frothing at the mouth.
"Entire buildings worth of data?!" she shouted in surprise. "And you lost it all?!" she yelled even louder.
"We...didn't own i--" Luna started.
"Literal entire buildings!" Twilight emphasized. A crazed and sadistic expression started to form on her face. "All that information. Everything that could be learned. And that one was onlynumber seventeen! What did they hold that we could have learned?! How could it have benefited u-Ow!"
Twilight grabbed her head, rubbing it frantically and falling on the floor from the sudden pain. Celestia was floating above the ground with an arm outstretched.
"Sorry I had to bonk you, Twilight, but you were going crazy again," the sun princess said in a monotone voice.
Twilight peered at her through tears. "But I wanted to learn about the authors of-" Celestia lazily raised her arm again in response. "I'll be good!" Twilight spurted.
Luna shook her head.
The data Luna had received was at least somewhat helpful, accessing consoles placed near the 'buildings' rather than going to mega structures directly. She looked at the rules of the city, but wasn't sure which ones to claim. Having no knowledge of the one she currently inhabited didn't allow her to carry the knowledge of specific information. As such, she only took general practice data, but it was very little. The blue machine also peered into the model of robots that existed.
Over twenty thousand different models had existed since their creation and implementation into society. Currently, there were seven generations of helpers coexisting and only three generations of other types: Construction, hazard disposal, energy maintenance, and so forth still working side-by-side. Not to mention those that were just shy of being like Luna and the rest of the robots: The skeleton ai that only had very simplistic and basic commands, such as the one that 'inhabited' Luna's makers' home. There were also...models hundreds of generations old still being used by those that made use of the black energy, although these had been heavily modified in the lengthy period they had been applied. All these modifications had led to so many variants and 'upgrades' they alone led up to the number of current models in the current day.
"Where are my models?" she wondered. She continued peering throughout the database, but the same types popped up constantly, as did their variants. "My model type is not present?" Her internal calculations came up with an error. "But the public assistance robots possessed information of my model type."
Whilst trying to solve the mystery, Luna felt a jolt through her systems. She ignored it, considering it to just be anomalous feedback from her connect with the console she was connected to. Yet, again, another jolt coursed through her. Still unable to understand the sensations going through her processors and circuits, the machine looked up towards the source of the bright lights. Letting the strange directive override her current goal, the robot rose the platform, dodging the ones moving around her at the same and continuing on higher and higher! The wires were starting to converge, and several makers who were just below this highest floor were checking the wires using computers, scanners, and whatever other tool. Luna wasn't sure what they were doing and didn't care. They were too distracted to notice her, anyways.
The robot arrived near the roof of the building, where the wires converged into many clumps of super bright, white light. To Luna's dismay, there resembled the sun. At least they weren't causing her systems to overheat. Several clumps were held together by metal plates curving around them, to keep them stable, Luna concluded. They wobbled somewhat in a breeze she could hear being produced by some air filtration system that couldn't be spotted. Unable to get a good view with the discs constantly being taken away from her control and pulled away, Luna decided to fly on her own power. She floated to the five orbs after observing the wires and analyzed each one.
They were an anomaly that wasn't within Luna's database after the fresh download of machinery data. There was still a pulling sensation, prompting the robot to look around each one last time until she spotted what looked like the top of a robot's head. Following it down, she was met with a robot stretched far far apart. The strip holding its eyes were dim and its chassis was fully segmented along the lines. The blue energy was converging at its strongest along the lines and towards the open torso of this...robot. The current was wild and unpredictable, and looking to the makers below, it was clear that it was because of this machine that they were present. Whatever it was doing it was pumping data in and out of itself like a starving heart. Luna went closer to inspect the eye module. She checked the connectors and stopped moving when they lit up and stared at her. The rings and the pupils were yellow on a black backdrop. They were the ones she had seen in the house during the incident with her service station.
"Who are you," Luna asked it. It did not respond. "What are you doing," Luna asked once more.
It remained silent, staring at her. Because of this, the blue machine flew around, tracking the eye movements of this bizarre machine and found that it was following her every movement. What took Luna a longer while to notice was that several of the wires and the segmented parts were retracting back towards the torso, eventually reshaping the machine into its original form and shutting down a glass sphere that was hanging in the air. It pulled down the four others, but their strength kept them aloft. Luna over heard the makers below grow upset, still unaware at what was occurring.
This machine looked very much like Luna, although it was pure white in color and lacking any extra decorations. It possessed a short, featureless 'muzzle', two yellow ringed eyes with black scelera, arms and legs identical to her own, and 'hair' of unknown material that flowed down along its backside. It was a mixture of pastel greens, blues, and pinkish-purples. And while Luna had glowing and dimming lines of blue across her body, snaking around her joints and her metal plates, this machine's was yellow. It floated in front of Luna while its joints permanently locked in place through fusing of the metals. The blue machine could see the yellow sparks dotted along a vast majority of its body, and she had to look up. This other 'Luna' was a head taller than she was.
Reaching forward, the blue machine asked the pure white one a simple question. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I am model LH-37-bq3. I am designated as a central data processor of Data Center Seventeen," it responded. It had the same treble-boosted voice as Luna, but the pitch was a few decibels lower.
"No," Luna said. "Who are you?"
The white machine remained silent for a moment, its systems glitching and causing the fusing to start and stop erratically across its body. "Unsure," it responded.
The white robot stared at Luna, letting her see that the new encounter's eyes had small components within the rings that were rotating, zooming, and pulling back at very quick intervals.
"What is your designation?" the white robot asked.
"I am model LN-1a. Designated as 'Luna' by my owners," the blue robot responded.
There was a momentary pause as the new machine calculated. "Affix after model fabrication number. A custom model." Luna said nothing in response. "Model LN...built before...me," the white robot's systems twitched. "Designation LH is precedent of LN...maybe." It started glitching even more, its voice becoming more erratic in tone, and it grabbed its head, or at least attempted to do so. The machine didn't deploy its ring hands. "Doesn't make sense." It remained in the air, twitching. "Data is present...hard to access. Mixed. Corrupted. Incomplete. Unorganized. Must compile and archive."
"Perhaps my model is after yours but I was built before you," Luna posited.
The machine started to sputter less and less in response. "I have only been active for seven months rounded up." It lowered its arms. "Acceptable conclusion."
Luna could see the heightened temperatures within the machine that had made her burn white hot all the while was gradually started to wane. She looked down to the makers, watching them scramble after hearing their confusion and anger once the wires had been cut and weren't pumping data and energy through them anymore.
"Follow me," Luna said.
She expected to have to negotiate a directive to the white machine, but it simply twitched then floated beside her. The disc accepted the new passenger, and Luna's controls reappeared in her vision.
"How do we get out?" Luna pondered aloud. "The entry point followed in a single direction. The exit point must follow the same rule."
She ordered the disc to lower itself and go past the makers trying to maintain the cables, several literally pulling out their hairs in response. Luna found their inability to notice her and the white machine perplexing. She found it even more perplexing when the LH model took control of the disc and dropped it just a few floors lower than the maintenance crew above, shocking the few makers nearby. They had been coming in through a large doorway, and several were taking a spot at desks once inside to work on the computers nearby. Luna saw that they had the options of privacy by creating a cabin of hard light that no one could see through. She didn't have time to observe more of their behaviors in-depth that she realized the LH model was leaving without her.
The blue machine hurried to its side, but it was floating away at a quick pace, either unaware or uncaring of the people it was knocking over on its quest to find the other end of the tunnel. The makers all seemed shocked at the two machines going out through their tunnel, with many saying -in manners unique to each of them- that this wasn't the way out. They were ignored, and the machines eventually made their way out of the tinted glass panes of the tunnel, unveiling themselves in the presence of the sun and the cold winds once again. They had stopped near the top of the stairs leading to the stairs leading from a nearby building to the tunnel. Luna didn't appreciate the sun beating down upon her again. The new machine, however, looked around frantically. Staring and taking in everything it could. It watched its body shift in tone as light was blocked to varying degrees at various angles. She saw the plants flutter in the wind and the animals still present in the city run around, some being chased. Then it looked up and saw the sun.
Luna watched it stare for minutes on end until it broke its statuesque behavior by reaching out towards the yellow ball in the sky. It floated higher but quickly lowered itself back down to the ground, forcing several of the makers around to take a wide berth.
The LH model twitched, and the lights of her body fizzled erratically. "What is that?" it asked.
"The sun. It should be within your database," Luna answered.
Its lights stabilized. "It is a massive celestial object. Ninety-five times bigger than our world," she blurted.
"I request to assign you a new designation," Luna asked.
The machine jolted its head towards her. "Request accepted. What is your designation?"
Luna's systems calculated and pulled out images of the lights she had grown so fond of. "Spectral," she said.
The model LH's optics readjusted themselves several times before it gave an answer. "Designation...unacceptable."
For the first time in her short life, Luna felt...surprise. She patted her torso, thinking it to be short-circuiting or damage to her internal systems. She and the LH model witnessed the blue energy flow from them to a point between them before quickly dissipating into the air. The process continued for several seconds and quickly abated when the LH spoke up.
"I...A celestial object..." It was taking the machine quite a while to come up with a proper thought. In the mean time, the two had become oblivious of the small crowd of makers gathered around, curious as to what was happening. "Database...Can't find..." her voice glitched. "Simplification then. Many suns in the sky. Trillions of celestial bodies. Bright like the sun. Celestial." It looked at Luna. "Celestia is my new designation."
"So that's how you two met," Twilight realized. "But wait, does that mean Luna is the older sister then?" The two princesses looked at each other then back to Twilight. "I don't understand. I thought Celestia's designation meant she was older!"
The two princesses fidgeted awkwardly in place, unable to come up with a proper response.
"We're supposed to know..." Celestia started. "But the truth is that we aren't really sure ourselves."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked with a tilted head.
Luna rested an arm in her palm whilst she thought of a proper response. "The thing is, our alphabets and languages are very different to what exists now. All of this is just approximate translations. This should have been evident just from the fact that the makers aren't even of the same millennium as you," she explained.
"Uh, y-yeah. I totally knew that." Twilight smiled.
"You're still terrible at lying, Twilight," Celestia said in a bored tone. "You became a princess not too long ago. I would've imagined you would have improved since then." The princess rested her forehead on the outer ring of her 'hand' and shook her head in disappointment. "That said, we don't really know how the manufacturer designated things."
Twilight raised her brows in surprise. "Really? But it's something really straightforward." She pondered. "You think they just named models after some base descriptor? Could just be a designation rather than a following line of increasingly newer models."
Celestia shrugged. "Could also be that they started our series with 'L' -as best as we can translate- and went on from there? Maybe decreasing, maybe increasing. We can't remember nor do we really know." She looked upwards pensively. "Hm. All I recall right now is that I was the third in a group of fifteen 'BQ's sent to the data centers."
Luna scratched off some dirt that had fallen on the side of her head. "We don't much care nowadays anyways."
"Why not?" Twilight asked.
"We have a kingdom to run, Twilight. We find the present somewhat more important than a past that can't be recovered." Her lights sparked. "Much to our dismay."
Twilight walked around the cave to stretch her legs while she thought. "Celestia, weren't you connected to that data base?"
"Yes."
"Can't you access all that data now?" Twilight asked.
Celestia shook her head. "Being offline for millions of years under rubble and dirt doesn't really contribute to a fully functional memory." She tapped the side of her head in response.
The lavender alicorn's face twisted. "Rubble."
"Let's resume the story telling!" Luna blurted out.
The makers all around ooo'd at the declaration, many clapping in response and aw'ing at the programming to make such a 'play' occur in front of them. It was a welcome distraction to many of the weary ones. Several wanted to know who managed to program such a thing with these strange looking robots. Luna and the newly dubbed Celestia floated over the hard-light railings on the sides of the open pathway and floated downwards back onto the floor, losing whatever the makers were saying. The white machine immediately dropped to the ground when they touched down and started fumbling with the grass.
"Grass," she said. "Database doesn't contain texture of item. Which type of grass?" she pondered aloud.
Luna noticed that 'Celestia' seemed...curious of her surroundings. She didn't share the sentiment, perhaps because she was yet aware of herself.
"Why are you looking at the grass?" she asked.
Celestia looked back at Luna, her body twitching excitedly in response. "Data always flowed through. So much to see! Never time to see! Only calculations and processing and data retrieving and delivering!" She formed a ring hand and pulled grass blades off the plants. "Texture. Chemical make-up. All data present. Unable to process. Must defragment and check internal systems for errors." She looked to the side, seeing several older machines accompanying elderly makers. "What do the-" Her voice glitched and she almost collapsed on the ground after a particularly nasty spasm.
Luna found her arms outstretched and her body had dived to catch Celestia. Perplexed, she looked at her arms and rotated them around to see if something had grabbed a hole of her and made her lurch forward.
"Perplexing," she muttered.
"The makers call it?" She remained silent for a moment as she accessed her database. It was taking longer than Luna took, but based on the simulations she played in her head and the state of Celestia, she was certain that her internal database was a complete mess. "Excitement!" the white machine shouted.
"Assessment: Your systems are heavily damaged and require maintenance. Further functioning in this state will cause you potentially irreparable damage," Luna said. "We must find a public service station." She grabbed Celestia's arm and lifted her up. "I downloaded a map of seventeen different cities." She looked around the city, taking in the various titanic structures and sky piercers. "Only eight have up to seventeen data centers. Two have more." She began cross-referencing the data in her mind. "Correct map acquired." She looked around and eventually trace a new path in her mind, but the primary directive was telling her to follow its command. She still didn't know what it was, but she had something more important to work on.
The two robots went through the city, once more ignoring the signs of common courtesy that the makers and other robots abided by. Eventually, Luna came to another major ground crossroads. She was about to hop over the security fence the others were waiting behind when Celestia jerked her arm back, pulling Luna back and making her slam into the white machine's chest.
"Can't cross. Vehicles around. Must wait for the wall to lower," Celestia said.
Luna looked back at the street. "Oh. Conclusion was that passing was possible when there were no signs of approaching vehicles."
"The vehicles are too fast," Celestia argued. "Even robots must abide despite quicker reflexes and processing than makers." She twitched. "Could cause accidents."
Luna nodded and did as told. She heard a dinging noise and the hard light wall dissipated. Following the other robots and makers' lead, the blue machine and her charge continued forward. They passed through multiple different streets, but became lost on a few occasions. Even if Luna had a map of the city, she realized that not having a direct link to the network meant that she couldn't see her direct position. She could only approximate their position, leading to upsetting moments of ending up in dead ends or in the completely wrong direction. One street was filled with the angry, billowing black energy that had seen before. It was piling atop itself and angrily clawing at the walls and plants around, gradually getting closer to the two robots. Preferring not to see it closer, she and Celestia hurried away. Even when faced with that bizarre color,
Finally, and by pure coincidence, the blue machine came upon an agglomeration of twenty public service stations sitting in the middle of a small clearing between several habitations. Their red color contrasted with the blacks, whites, and blues of the smooth walls and streets, providing an ease of spotting for the weary robots. Thirteen of the stations were already in use, giving more than enough spots to choose from. Luna looked towards Celestia, who seemed to be completely absent-minded, as though she was a barebones AI meant to respond to simple commands and execute them. She placed Celestia into the station and moved her arms and legs in place.
The white machine's body started to twitch and spark as the shifting metal pieces started surrounding her. To Luna's surprise, many of them swarmed onto and started crawling along Celestia's chassis, although she was unsure of what they were doing. The stressed robot looked to the blue machine, forcing her neck to bend forward despite her glitching and the metal pieces trying to hold it back and in place.
"Decompile and recharge, Celestia," Luna said. Celestia remained online, actively fighting the station, something the blue machine found stunning. A memory of her time at the house with her owners was brought up from her internal storage, giving her an idea. "I will keep watch. Sleep well...sibling."
For reasons that eluded her, the white robot finally let go, and the light of her body became dim. Her body was limp, and it was finally easy to access by the strange, tiny plates of metal.
Now all Luna needed to do was figure out where to go next.
Luna stood guard over her new sibling while the station worked on sorting her systems out. On multiple occasions, Celestia would twitch and spasm, then the metal bands would create a spark, stunning the white robot. Whatever they were doing seemed to be working as the spasms became less and less frequent as time went on. New robots came and went from the service station every few hours, and some makers would pass as well, but no one paid attention to the vigilante machine keeping watch over another in its service station. Luna remained still and unmoving in front of her sibling's service station.
While Luna knew, thanks to her database, that bots in the service stations were more-or-less protected from the relative dangers of nature and some 'simple' blunt force, she couldn't go into one for her own maintenance. It was always possible that she would be shut down longer than Celestia, and she would likely wander off, lost, and still glitching. Whatever strain she sufered, she was clearly in need of multiple types of maintenance. Luna posited that she might even need to take the white machine to a physical technician. Rare though it was to go to one, they were usually better with the physical maintenance of robots and other machinery than a service station. In Celestia's case, she might need a replacement part, or several, if that were even a possibility considering nobody but the PABs knew what they were.
Hours continued ticking by, and the sun had long since gone to rest below the line of towering buildings, leaving way for the moon high above. The blue machine could once again see the moon and the gentle trails of blue energy left behind by the flying vehicles in the night sky. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately considering her first encounter with the colors at their source, the blue machine couldn't see anything from where she was. The tall habitations blocked most color and lit the area with their own white light, accentuating the dirt that had accumulated across the ground, walls, and the machines.
Still, Luna waited patiently. The service station was continuing its work despite it starting to seem fruitless. Celestia was still twitching despite being at rest, although it seemed to have calmed down even further compared to her fits earlier. Luna felt something within her circuitry regarding this white machine. She didn't appreciate the sensation and considered it to be a malfunction of her temperature detection chips. When Celestia had finally awoken the city had become almost silent, and the lights coming from most windows of the habitation had gone dark.
All that was left were the rare night goers and the wildlife. As the white machine finally started coming to, she saw a four-winged insect with a hide like it was made of rough glass. It flapped in front of her, enamored by her bright eyes before ejecting some sort of yellow substance from its abdomen and jettisoning off into the distance towards the habitations' many lights.
"How are your systems?" Luna asked.
Celestia grabbed her head and looked to the rest of herself. "I am...seventy-one percent functional, rounded down." She looked back to the station and dropped her arm. "It overloaded. A new section of service stations is required," she said.
"Would physical maintenance by a certified and approved technician not be more productive?" Luna asked. "Your internal machinery might be damaged."
Celestia calculated for a moment. "No. My internal machinery is in optimal-but-strained functional range. I must maintain a low-usage mode to allow for the material to reconstitute itself." She looked at her arms then put them on her hips. "I am not dysfunctional just yet."
Luna looked at the action, perplexed. "What is that?" she asked.
"Makers place their arms to their sides in entertainment media. They consider it to be a sign of great pride," Celestia answered.
Luna's head swayed to the right. "What conclusion made you want to do that?" she asked.
The white machine drooped. "Unclear." The two remained silent, and Celestia twitched momentarily. "Where is our destination? What are our directives?" she asked.
Luna froze. "Unknown. I...just started searching for other machines. Like me. I concluded," she caught herself. "the data centers would possess information of machines like me." She pointed at Celestia who leaned back in response. "You are a model LH, of the same line as my own."
"Your conclusion is erroneous," Celestia said. Her eyes fluttered again, and she started hopping around, testing her systems. "Our models are not the source of our new calculations. Prior observations and conclusions show that any common glitches and faulty line executions are caused by the source code itself." She stopped bouncing and stared at Luna. "Your searches would have not come up with the requested information." Luna registered everything into her database. "Your internal temperature is increasing. Do you require maintenance to replace your temperature regulators?" Celestia asked.
"We require insight from a mechanic," Luna concluded. "Physical observations of us has determined that we display behavior uncommon within robots."
"A mechanic will have logged and chartered any abnormalities displayed by robots." She calculated, and her lights flickered. "Any anomalies untreated by a service station would bring the machine to a technician. Acceptable conclusion."
Luna checked her downloaded map for several minutes until closing it. "My map doesn't have the location of robotic technicians." She looked at Celestia who didn't react and continued staring at her. "Makers or other robots might know of the location of a close one."
Celestia looked up and briefly flinched away from the moon. "Most makers would be asleep at this time. Public Assistance Robots would likely have all locations available."
"Then let us proceed," Luna confirmed.
The blue machine moved forward a small bit before checking behind her to see Celestia staring at the bugs jettisoning left and right in front of her. She started floating, trying to catch them with her own ring hands, but even if she managed to predict all elements leading to a point in their trajectory, having massive a massive hole in place of solid matter made catching the targets of her new intrigue impossible. Luna rushed forward and grabbed the white machine's arm, pulling her along.
"Keep within detectable distance, sibling," Luna ordered.
Celestia didn't respond, moving along at the same pace as her 'escort'. The two wandered about in search of any PABs, but, for some odd reason, they could not encounter any. Luna concluded that they were more active in areas with high robot activity and maker presence. Or it was just one of the conclusions. Regardless, they were not around here, so the two would have to either find a new service station or a a technician on their own. They might even have to go into standby mode and wait until the sun rose back up and the makers became active again.
They stopped in a quiet street, seeing several signs displaying directions on their giant screens. Most vehicles were in the sky at this time of the night, so the chances of Luna causing another accident were close to none. Still, there were no stations, and the blue machine's systems were grinding harder and harder at the lack of progress with the map she downloaded. Her processors determined that the data was of little-to-no use in its current state and was about to delete it completely from her storage with no chance of recovery.
"We require directions to a robotic technician," Celestia said. "Can you aid us?"
Luna turned to see that her sibling was talking to a particularly thin maker. She was feeling her systems relax.
"Sure I can. I'm one," he answered. "Follow me," he said.
The two robots followed, satisfied that the first step of their current directive. They spent several minutes following him when Luna spoke up.
"When did the maker appear?" she asked her sibling.
"He was hiding in the darkness, watching us. I believe it is what makers have established as 'shyness', so I approached him," she responded.
Luna's system calculated. "A good approach," she said.
Some time later, they saw the maker round a corner into an alleyway that a lot of metal banging and grinding against each other could be heard. It was between a sky scraper and a bridge. Rounding the corner themselves, the two saw about a dozen older model robots on the floor and unmoving.
"What is wrong with these machines?" Luna asked almost instantly.
The maker looked over his shoulder. "Uh, they're all machines the service stations couldn't repair, so the PABs passed them to--"
He was hit on the side of the head by a larger maker. Luna's optics focused on her and the maker. Their colors seemed off, although she attributed it to errant lighting and colors wandering around.
"What are you coming up with a deep explanation for to them?" she asked with annoyance. She gestured to the two machines. "It's not like they're going to report us or anything." She shook her head and pulled out a black object from under her arm. "Honestly. How are you my brother?" she lamented. "They'll only react if you do illegal things to their systems."
The box ended in a metallic needle with several smaller, metallic bars going from it and into the black box. The female pulled a large blue box the size of Luna's torso and passed it to the male. She grabbed a much smaller one the size of her palm off of her waist and placed it into the item under her arm.
She paused a moment and eyed the two machines. "Never seen these models before." She crouched and looked at their feet. "They're floating. I thought that tech wasn't ready for another century or something."
The male shrugged in response as he lugged a robot over his shoulder and carried it to a larger piled at the end of the alleyway. "Just saw them wandering around and thought they could come and be diagnosed." He cackled. "Show us the blue energy they run on."
"I say we take them with us for the repairs after their diagnostic," she suggested.
The man gestured to the bots on the floor. "What about these ones?" he asked.
The female maker scoffed and shrugged. "Leave them here. S'not like we're gonna use 'em for anything."
"What is that?" Luna asked as she pointed to the box with her arm.
"This?" the female wondered. She bounced the box to readjust it under her arm. "Let's me check for energy surges. In-case I need to carry extra isolationing stuff."
"Do you require my assistance in--"
"Just stand still," the woman said.
Luna could detect the female's elevated blood pressure and heart beat. She was anticipating something, but the robot was unsure of what. Watching her systems, Luna noticed that her power had already dropped to ninety-seven point two percent power. Her programming told her to seek immediate recharge if she arrived at ninety percent. She didn't like the prospects of her energy consumption. Under her current state of activity she would likely need to recharge in eleven years. That was too short for her.
The robot was brought out of her calculations when she felt the box touch her chest. A blindingly bright flash immediately followed, shooting blue energy everywhere and scorching the walls of the nearby buildings, bridge, and robots. The flash stopped almost as soon as it occurred, leaving the two robots standing silently and awaiting the next step. Luna noticed her power had dropped to ninety-six point five and noted the anomaly.
"What has occurred, technician?" she asked. "Do you require assistance?"
Celestia floated over the powerless husks towards the two makers lying down in the pile. The larger one's box had blown open, leaving just the rear left with its edges blown outwards. The large female was slumped against the end of the wall, her mouth agape. The smaller male was twisted into strange positions and was buried under the charred robots.
Luna approached the male and pulled him out from beneath the wreckage, noticing that he wasn't responding to her. "Maker, are you alright?" she asked. His body was limp. She scanned him, came to a realization, then dropped his uncomfortably crooked shape on the robots.
Celestia, meanwhile, was poking he head of the larger female, expecting a reaction. She seemed enamored by the action. "They have ceased function. We must report this," she said.
"We must find a service station, for that. Perhaps we will cross a PAB on the way," Luna posited.
"Wha...Exactly how much power is flowing through both of you right now?!" Twilight shouted in disbelief.
"Well," Celestia started. She hummed pensively then pointed up. "You see the sun?"
Twilight's face went pale. "You don't mean...?!"
"That's right. Our power is barely even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of its output, but we still have a lot."
Twilight frowned at her teacher who seemed proud of herself. "That didn't answer my question."
"We don't have a metric to compare it to today's technology, Twilight," Luna rebutted. "But a close comparison would be that we could power around..." She calculated. "let's say ten thousand steam trains for a few centuries if they ran all at the same time non-stop."
Twilight was suspicious. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Twenty-percent positive."
Luna stared at the large female her sibling was standing next to. It seemed like her ocular systems were glitching, but she could see the black smoke coming off of the large female. It looked like a tail of it crossed in front of her body, making that small section swell in size. She dismissed it as a problem caused by the brief energy shortage she experienced.
Back together, they moved to get out of the alleyway when Celestia looked at the inanimate male. Her body twitched and her lights flickered. "Yoga position," she blurted.
Left to their whims, the two robots wandered about the streets of the city they stood in, looking for PABs or any helpful makers. They regretted that the technicians had ceased functioning, but they weren't programmed with medical knowledge nor the tools to execute them. At least, Luna didn't have the knowledge. Celestia's systems were still a mess, and she hadn't organized the plethora of data hidden within her storage during the brief maintenance.
While they continued to search fruitlessly, the words and images of the two technicians repeated constantly in a corner of Luna's vision. The audio played on repeat as well, isolated on a secondary audio channel. 'Brother', the giant female said. The interactions between the two. The word 'brother'. Brother. The blue machine's owners had two infants. Two brothers. Her systems started to calculate and come up with various different scenarios. Brothers were male siblings, she thought. She was designated as 'female', by her makers. Luna searched through her database again, narrowly avoiding a maker rounding the corner during it. What was the other term for siblings? Cousins? Incorrect. Uncle? Incorrect.
The blue machine looked to Celestia. "Sibling," she started. The white machine looked at her, its head slightly tilted to the side. "If we are siblings, may I propose a new denomination?"
"Yes," Celestia answered plainly.
Luna felt her joints strain under an invisible pressure, and her vocal systems were straining to produce sound as well. "Perhaps we may be considered as sisters?"
Celestia's wide eyes focused harder on her sibling than they were before, and her head twitched left and right. "Why 'sisters'?" she asked.
"My owners have designated me as 'female'," Luna answered.
The blue machine watched Celestia raise her free arm and scratch her head with a ring hand. "Machines do not possess-"
"I know," Luna interrupted. "Custom models allow for custom designations. This model...I was designated as a female named 'Luna'."
She heard Celestia's eyes whirr and spin as they analyzed her in depth. "Okay," the machine said. "We are sisters. Similar hulls but different models. Agreeable."
Luna and Celestia 'smiled', as best as Twilight could tell based on their 'closed' eyes.
"Ah, the moment we became true sisters," Luna reminisced joyfully.
"It was like a wake up call. Something that poked and prodded us in the back of our heads. In the minds we had yet to develop."
Twilight looked suspiciously to the side. "So we're just going to ignore that you fried two makers alive?" she muttered under her breath.
"A fun moment for both of us!" Celestia shouted enthusiastically. She bobbed her head left and right to a tune only she could hear. "And to think I was contemplating calling each other 'brother' instead of sister." She chuckled. Luna and Twilight looked at her sideways, perplexing her. "What?"
Luna shrugged it off. "That would've been a very different life here in Equestria if we had gone forward with that," Luna pondered.
Twilight blew up laughing at the image that popped up in her head. The princesses couldn't help but feel insulted for some odd reason.
Luna felt her systems relax and some prodding at her core programming again. Still, she needed to find a mechanic for her new 'sister'. Once more they traveled. They did this for several more hours until, finally, they happened upon the massive PABs. The pair of large machines approached the two.
"Do you require assistance?" one of them asked.
"We require directions to the closest robotic technician," Luna said.
The two PABs started communing with each other without moving. To an outsider it resembled flashing lights and 'beeping' in quick succession.
"A location has been found." Luna said 'map location received' pop up in front of her display. "The shop is fifteen minutes from this location. However, the workshop is currently closed. It will open in three hours and twenty-two minutes," it stated with its loud voice. "Do you require additional assistance?"
Celestia moved forward. "There are two inactive makers in an alleyway at this location. Permission to upload coordinates."
"Granted," the PAB answered. Its limbs firmed up. "Location received. We will dispatch to that location immediately." It leaned forward. "Do you require additional assistance?"
"No."
"Acknowledged. Have a good day."
The two PABs rushed off past the sisters, faster than Luna had ever seen them. Now the two were left to their own devices. They would have to find something to do as they waited for the technician's shop to open. The two quickly decided to find the location then go in stand-by mode in front of the workshop until it opened up again. The buildings gradually became sparcer the closer the pair got to their destination until all that was left was a massive white rectangle surrounded by fences higher than the one story building itself, easily reaching three. The fences were built of black metals with openings in-between several beams from where the hard light 'windows' sat.
Undeterred by such a security system, the two floated above the fence and landed in the cordoned off lands. It was devoid of any plant life whatsoever, but the barren lands weren't a messy wasteland.
"I determined it would be the equivalent of a junkyard through historical references," Celestia said. Her tone was awry. A glitch again?
"The technician seems to have organized everything they possess here into piles and storage houses," Luna noted.
There were piles of different generations of robots present. While the five most 'recent' were in their own piles, organized once more by the state of their decay, Luna noted that were were a few older models. Celestia pointed at one that had been surrounded by glass and held up on a metal frame.
"That one is three hundred and two generations old," she said.
It was barely even a robot. Its internal frame had been bent at many areas, and it was missing its lower torso and left arm. Luna could even see the wiring exposed and an empty battery dangling from its socket between the chest and spine. What was left were blackened remains of what must have been a sizeable beast of a robot as its one remaining arm, covered in thick barrels of armor, was bigger than she and Celestia put next to each other. Granted, they were still thin, but the prospect caused her danger indicators to come to life. Its head was smashed in, but several parts of it were smoother and straighter than the rest. This robot was being actively repaired. Her danger indicators intensified when she realized that the angry black smoke was seeping off this old robot in tiny rivulets. They were barely capable of maintaining their own presence. It seemed like they were trying more to stay alive than wash over Luna and everything around her like the other instances.
Other parts of the workshop grounds included batteries and storage units kept in sealed containers. Batteries in particular were kept in transparent boxes with a light indicator to the left of the handles. A few of the boxes showed red lights, and the sisters could see a black, grimy substance leaking from some of the batteries. Others were leaking a crystallized white substance, and only one other was blue.
The two continued exploring the workshop like this for the time that was left, having completely forgotten that they were supposed to be in stand by mode. Luna watched her sister dig into a pile of refuse with a metal sign standing next to it with 'To be recycled' painted on. Celestia pulled out the hull of a much larger and older model of robot. It was round like a ball with openings on the sides and on the front. Perfect to fit her 'muzzle', as it were. She raised her arms and bounced around in place, tilting herself deeper to the left, then the right. Luna could not comprehend the behavior and just observed and catalogued her observations.
"Hey!" a male voice shouted. "How did you kids get in here?! Get out of those robot hulls and get out of here before I call the PABs on you!"
Luna turned her head slightly to see a maker saying something to the building. Floating drones shot out from the pillars holding the wall segments together and illuminated the grounds in bright white lights. Celestia had her back to the maker. Looking up, she realized what was happening, her body spasming in response. She turned around and took the old 'head' off her own, keeping it on her raised arm.
"What the...I've never seen suits like those," he muttered.
He leaned against the wall, huffing, until the pair heard loud thumping. A very large robot came through a retracting section of the wall and hurried over to the male. It pulled a metal bar with a bent section out of its leg and passed it to the maker. It was almost as tall as the building, stopping about two heads short. Its arms and legs were devoid of whatever original armor it possessed. Instead, it was a mismatched assortment of yellows, whites, and blacks melted together and placed upon it for protection. One of its three-digited hands were big enough to grab hold of both of the sisters and still have room for several more to hold. Its chest was broad, and its joints wirred and buzzed with activity. Its head was a tall cone with several optical cameras planted all around the surface. Its feet were solid tree trunks that kept it stable regardless of whatever came its way.
The male limped towards the siblings and scrutinized them. He raised his cane to push Celestia's arm down and make her new 'helmet' fall on the ground. She attempted to lower herself but was stopped by the maker placing the base of his cane at her chin.
"Take off the suits," he ordered. "I'm curious as to who you are and how you managed to craft such prodigious things." The two robots stared at him. "I asked you politely. Now--" his voice was growing in tone.
"This model requires maintenance," Luna said. She pointed to Celestia floating next to her. The white machine sparked and twitched.
The male looked at the two suspiciously. "Your voice modulator is quite impressive, but I--"
"Are you the robotic technician of this location?" Luna asked.
"I am but--"
"We require your skills to maintain this model," she insisted.
The giant machine waited behind, its systems running noisily in the background.
Still suspicious, the maker grabbed Celestia's head and lowered it to his height to better see. "Okay. I'll 'maintain' y-What?!" His tone of assuredness broke when he saw Celestia's eyes. He lost balance from the surprise and fell, landing on his rear. The giant rushed over and -despite its size- delicately pushed him back onto his feet. "Good thing its only my leg that has a problem and not the rest of me," he chuckled. The three machines remained silent. "Ugh. Sometimes living around robots is just..." He took a deep breath. "I'm worried I'm losing my sense of humor."
Celestia moved closer, prompting the giant to place a large hand between her and the technician. "Will you provide maintenance?" she asked.
Her movement brought the technician's eyes downwards, letting him see that the two were floating. "No two-bit hobbyist would be able to create permanently hovering robots," he said in awe. "What even are you? What kind of models are you? Where are you from? Who is your manufacturer." He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you even here?" he asked. "Are you assassins of some kind?" he asked angrily. The giant's gears growled angrily and stomped forward in response, its gigantic fists clenched. "You aren't the first ones to come here!"
Luna tilted her head. "Assassin...term not located within database," she said.
The maker's arms dropped in confusion.
Celestia calculated, her lights flashing. "Individual tasked with eliminating other individuals for compensation, be it monetary, ideological, or personal," she explained.
Luna pondered on the thought and looked to the man. "Are you an assassin?" she asked.
Lost for words, the technician sputtered and babbled in response. "No, I'm saying that you are...!" He nearly tripped on a loose plating buried under the dirt.
Luna rushed forward past the giant and held the maker up with her arms and ring hands. "You are currently injured. Continued injury could lead to more severe physical trauma. Would you like me to call medical teams to this location?" she asked him.
The maker gestured his colossus to stand down after it raised a fist, apparently oblivious of the damage it could have caused. The technician looked to Celestia bobbing her head left and right with the helmet back on her arm as she stared at him. He couldn't wrap his head around what he was seeing.
The old maker frowned and leaned against his cane after being lifted up. Luna backed away when the giant put its hand in front of them and returned next to her sister.
"I don't need medical aid," he refused stubbornly. The technician grunted. "What makes you think I can do anything for you-" He was interrupted by Celestia twitching wildly. "-two...?"
"You are a designated robotic technician," Luna said. "You are qualified to aid us in maintenance needs."
"Just use a station!" the man yelled angrily.
"The station has proved inefficient." Luna looked to Celestia throwing the helmet back into its pile. "Celestia needs your aid. Her internal systems have been placed under great duress for an unknown amount of time."
The male narrowed his eyes. "Celestia huh? So you're custom models?" He walked over to Celestia while the giant kept watch and looked around the white machine's hull. "I don't see anything designating you as a custom model," he said.
"I am not a custom model," Celestia said. The man looked shocked. "I am model LH-37-bq3. My new designation is 'Celestia' after cross-referencing data in my storage."
"What...You named yourself?!" he shouted in disbelief. The technician was speechless. "But that doesn't make any sense! There's no precedent for such a thing, and for AI to develop themselves in such a manner is...Where are your owners?"
"Mine are currently at their habitation. I am not allowed to disclose their location as per the security terms of my programming," Luna said.
"I don't have anyyyyy," Celestia sing-songed before her head twitched.
"That behavior is clearly abnormal." He looked at Luna from the corner of his eyes. "But it's not caused by stressed systems. That's all its doing."
"Her," Luna corrected.
The technician blinked. "What?"
"We have come to the consensus of being called 'sisters' per my owners custom designation of myself," the blue machine corrected.
"Saying 'myself' and not 'this model'? Interesting," he pondered aloud. He rubbed his wounded leg. "What did you say your model was again?" he asked Celestia.
"I am model LH-37-bq3," she answered.
"And you?" he asked Luna.
"Model LN-1a."
He scratched his head. "I don't recognized either of your model lines." He looked to Celestia. "I at least recognize that you're part of the thirty-seventh batch of manufactured models, but do you have any other designations? I don't recognize 'bq3'," he said.
Celestia looked into her personal logs. "No. That is all the information provided in my manufacturer's tag."
The male grunted. "Doesn't even state the model number of the batch approved..." His eyes shot wide open. "If it even has anything to do with that..." He was growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of information being provided to him by the machines. They were supposed to be more helpful! "Wait. Are you public models?" he asked the two.
"Unknown," they said in unison.
The technician dragged a hand over his face. "By being public models, I mean if you're available for purchase by the public or if you're private models. I have an inkling that you two are since I've never seen your models, your model designations, nor even heard of what you're capable of." He grabbed his chin and looked at their legs floating above the ground, leaving the dust and sand on the floor. "I'll see if there's anything that I can do, but considering what you've been demonstrating just by your models so far, I don't think I'll be able to do much."
He approached Celestia and tapped her chest at various points. "Where's the button to open your chest?" he shouted angrily after cursing aloud. Celestia unlocked the plating over chassis then gradually opened her hull itself. "Oh...Thank you," the technician said.
Celestia's internals were an assortment of various cables surrounded by a black, stretchy polymer, all wrapping around the sides of her internal framework and sliding seamlessly into the holes linking to her arms, legs, and head. To Luna, it looked like muscle fibers and thin, metal support framework interlinking around the cables. The supports were the size of needles and just as thin. A large blue sphere occupied most of the white machine's torso. The blue robot could see the blue energy wafting off all of her sister's components. It flew and ebbed and weaved in the air, wrapping around the technician's body and that of the giant before dissipating quickly after.
Luna could see that the maker was completely lost. She had seen it on the face of the 'father' many times before. He just hung onto the opening of Celestia's torso and stared at all the cabling and the sphere in the center of it all.
"You two are just shocking me more and more." He looked to the pile of boxes holding the batteries and saw another light go red. "We've gone past the use of the leaky batteries. The ones we have now just gradually dry up inside, but they can't hold a charge for a long while."
He reached out to try and touch the sphere, but Celestia grabbed his arm and carefully pulled it way. "Dangerous. Contact with my power source can cause you to cease function instantly."
The technician shivered. "Thank you, I suppose. Not ready for that trip yet." He exhaled loudly. "Whatever you have is filled with a lot of energy. A lot of it." He looked deeper into Celestia's framework.
Luna could see blue dots scattered about in her sister's frame. Kept in circles permanently rotating blue energy about them. It created a flow through Celestia's body that was being absorbed and exhaled by various 'pores' in the metallic structure of the machine herself. At the entry of the pathway leading to Celestia's left arm, the blue machine could see a blue disc spinning at a very rapid pace. She didn't have the necessary equipment built into her to be able to determine the rotations per minute.
"I can't figure out what any of this is or how any of this works. I've never seen technology like this in my life." He backed away from Celestia and pointed to the piles. "And I've been doing this for a long time." He groaned. "That being said, I can still see the same signs of stress on your framework. If you don't stress your systems any further, the materials should relax themselves back into place," he said. "You can go back to whomever owns you, now."
"No," Luna objected.
The technician was caught off-guard. "N-no? What do you mean 'no'? Does that go against a directive or rule in your programming."
"No. I am...following a directive," she explained.
The technician walked slowly towards the blue machine. "And what directive is that?" he asked her cautiously.
Now Luna's lights were the one to flash erratically. "To find...other...machines." The man gestured to his whole yard. "No," Luna rejected. "To find...other...machines," she strained to say.
"You mean similar models like you?" the man asked.
Luna shook her head. "I...am unsure."
"You have to be more specific. There are plenty of machines around, but your own models, if they're really private, won't be floating about haphazardly," the technician explained.
Luna grabbed her neck with a ring hand, drawing the man's gaze. Her lights were flashing angrily and her body was starting to twitch. "I...don't know...Others. Like us," she continued.
"There are plenty of others like you!" the man shouted. "Just lacking some of your features. What are you looking for?!"
Luna's body stopped glitching and she glared at the technician. "I don't know," she growled.
The maker left the machine to her own devices to 'cool' down, and laughed. "So you do feel emotions. Incredible!" His smile turned awry. "As a person vaguely related to science, I can say that this is quite incredible." He frowned. "Don't know what the regular folk would think. Plenty of people." He looked around his yard. "I have some service stations I haven't used since I received them. Was supposed to be to help maintain and recharge the robots around here, but I don't use many, and they aren't compatible with the newest model of service station spread about the city." He gestured to the giant to follow him. "I'll set two of them up before sending you on your way. You'll be safe here, after. Why, you might find others like you on the network, but don't keep your hopes up. " He looked over his shoulder. "You're the first I've ever seen of A.I. becoming self-aware." He frowned and rubbed his leg. "With so many generations you would think this would have happened sooner."
After her systems cooled off, Luna looked around for her sister, finding Celestia wandering about the area, fumbling through piles of old machinery. She decided to follow her sister's behavior. Most of the piles didn't interest her. Sure, they were other machines, but nothing particularly interested Luna. She decided to go towards a more organized bunch and found the chassis of several old machines. One of them was very close to her own size, albeit half a time bigger than her. What remained of the rusted metal was a bright brown with stained areas of rust. The torso was broken in two, giving it the appearance of a broken heart.
"Found something interesting?"
Luna turned around calmly. "Are the stations ready?" she asked.
The maker chuckled nervously then coughed into his fist. "I underestimated how heavy they were. The giant you saw is currently setting the platforms up for me to connect afterwards." He leaned to the right to get a better look at Luna's finding. "Oh. That thing. A strange chassis that one. Found a weird note on it telling me to melt it down at all costs." He rotated his free hand in the air. "Mentioned how the robot 'made everyone terrified' while it was active." He chuckled. "Kinda looks like a broken heart every time I see it. I just scrapped the entrails for parts and left the hull there. Might need the scrap later for a hull remolding."
Luna found interest in it, much to her confusion, and started to look around the scrapyard for anything she could find use in, all under the watchful eye of the technician.
"One thing bother me," Twilight interrupted. "The technician being interested in you developing sapience is one thing, but who were your...ahem...owners?" Twilight coughed.
Luna shrugged. "I don't know. They often mentioned working in something related to science, but I never retained what they were saying since I was still just following my programming back then."
"Still, I think that you developing like that is amazing!" Twilight frowned and pondered as she tapped a hoof on the ground. "I don't understand the technician's reluctance to mention you to the public."
Luna and Celestia looked to each other, but Luna started first. "Twilight, what would you do if a machine that was being made throughout your life all of a sudden gained sentience rather than sapience?"
"I would be thrilled!" Twilight shouted as she threw her forelegs into the air. "A machine developing its own mind? That sounds incredible!"
The lunar princess shook her head. "Okay. So, you would be thrilled like that for a machine of your size, I imagine, or smaller even." Twilight sensed a smile creep up the princess' non-existent face. "What if they were big enough to help construct buildings? What then?"
Twilight gave pause. She had to think of a proper response. "Well, I would still be thrilled. It might take a bit more caution, but I'm certain I could get through to them."
Celestia sighed. "Twilight, you're saying that because you developed a bias after seeing us and hearing of our story," she chided.
"N-no! That's not...Okay, maybe it's a little true, but so what?" she asked.
"What if that machine decides that it would prefer to destroy everything then instead of traveling around curiously like Luna and I did, hm?" Celestia put her arms on her hips. Twilight was speechless. "Being optimistic is a fantastic, my dear Twilight. Really, it is, but you have to remember that robots gaining sapience like that could be a very bad thing. Others might come to the conclusion that their own makers are a threat to their survival and behave like cornered animals. Others would see all the history and stubbornness of their creators and self-improve to help their creators become the best of what they can be. You wouldn't even know the conclusion they would come to to do it." Twilight was listening very closely. Now she had new theories to ponder on and philosophical quandaries to solve. "A new sentient ai is like an infant. It needs guidance, and if you don't give it that, it could very well develop wrong based on its initial programming alone."
Luna started floating around the scrapyard, fumbling through the organized piles and grabbing all manner of wiring and stray metal lying hidden under the ground. She used her own metal covering to hold it all up just like she used to do at her home.
"What are you doing?" the technician asked her. "How are you doing that?"
The blue machine turned around. A whole half of her vision was hidden by a box filled with a non-leaky battery. "Gathering," she answered plainly.
"Yes, I can see that. What for?" he asked as Luna dropped the box next to her gathered scraps. "Are you trying to create an entirely functional robot out of what you gathered?" He laughed. "You barely have anything close to enough parts for that."
"My database is devoid of any knowledge on the construction of another machine." Luna grabbed a green plate of metal then looked over to her sister. "My sister might have the knowledge, but I only have the knowledge of what kind of machines exist and have existed. There are gaps in that knowledge."
"So why are you gathering all of that if not to build a robot?" the technician repeated.
Luna gave pause before resuming her act of fumbling through her new pile and untangling the damaged wires. "Don't know."
The maker leaned against his cane while he watched the blue machine go to work on her bizarre project. Well, he watched her until he got distracted by Celesta wandering around the yard, rotating as she moved forward. He was so perplexed at her behavior that he became distracted and just stared. She would swing around scrap, fly over robot husks, and climb aboard the giant of a machine setting up the service stations. To the technician's relief, his refurbished construction bot remained on task, either completely oblivious to or just outright ignoring Celestia's bizarre adventure.
"This goes beyond some kind of code evolution," the technician mumbled aloud. He ducked when Celestia dashed towards him to jump overhead. "What's wrong with you?!" he yelled angrily.
"Databases says that populations perform strange movements and alterations of their body's natural positions in varying speeds and poses," Celestia explained.
"You mean dancing?" the male asked.
Celestia put an arm to the end of her 'muzzle' and twitched. "That is the name?"
The male looked at her sideways. "Yes. Why are you dancing?" he asked.
The white machine paused. "Unknown," she said.
Shaking his head, the technician wondered what had reached his scrap yard. "You two are very bizarre machines. You do things and you don't even know why you do it." Celestia shrugged in response, perplexing the maker even further. "Do you even know what you did there?!"
"I do," Celestia said.
Celestia watched the maker's eye twitch. "What is this selective knowledge?! How do you know things and not know things but do them anyways?" He dragged a hand across his face and was just about ready to start pulling out his hair. "How do you even function? What did your manufacturer even do to make you?!" He glared at Celestia. "Do you even know if all of your models are like this? Or if there are even others of your like left anywhere?" Celestia shrugged in response to his question. The male yelled in anger and turned towards Luna after hearing loud noises coming from her direction. "What are you doing now?!"
Luna had remade the tower she had seen from her home what seemed like so long ago. Naturally, she couldn't make it glow or even float with the blue energy, but at least the wire frame she found served as a good alternative. She grabbed the battery and let the energy within flow through the cables she connected to it by releasing the security locks on the sides. The flashing lights were erratic, much to her frustration, but at least there was a number of functional lights regardless. It was just the corners, but it was good enough.
"You create?" the male asked in awe.
The blue machine turned her head. "Create?" Luna repeated. "I replicated the tower viewable through the window of my home."
She followed the technician who walked to the tower and reached out to touch it.
"It's slapped together," he said. "But it's still made with scrap all around." He hummed pensively. "This isn't just a replication, robot." He tapped several parts of the tower. "Any other robot told to make this tower would be complaining that it couldn't find consistent materials or anything it needed to make the outside work." He looked at Luna with a grand smile. "Yet look at this: Wireframe with a vaguely blue color to represent the semi-transparent waste of the blue energy that shows itself during use. A-and these! You folded several different colored metal just to replicate the look of the tower itself rather than its color and surface consistence."
The group was interrupted by the male bouncing up and down with every loud 'thud' that occurred. The giant of a machine had come, announcing the completion of the service stations.
"The service stations are ready for use, sister," Luna said to Celestia.
The absent-minded white machine floated down from her invisible perch in the sky, landing right next to Luna.
"Then let us recharge," the white machine proclaimed.
"What? They're not done yet!" the technician said. "I still need to connect them to the power circuits and the network."
"Oh," Celestia lamented. "We're not recharging yet. We must bide our time."
More intrigued washed over the technician's face. "That sounded like some form of sadness," he noted. "Interesting that you're manifesting emotions, and yet you're not acting upon them irregularly like a new command line overriding your previous ones." He started walking to the stations at the far end of the scrapyard, closely followed by all three machines. "So either there's something else that happened when you started becoming this way, there's something that was already present within you that accounted for this kind of 'awakening', or." He looked over his shoulder, his voice becoming deep and croaky. "Or you two are just incredibly stupid to some degree." He looked up and turned away. "I want to believe it's the last one, but it doesn't account for anything." He snorted.
Time went on as the cables were connected and the technician used his computer the giant brought him to make sure everything was functional. Watching the flashing colors and lights of the screen intrigued Luna, bringing her very first 'memory' back into view. The giant city at night with all of its colors. She felt herself growing increasingly frustrated that she couldn't replicate the sensation of that one night no matter how hard she tried. She always looked out of the window, but the same commands didn't replicate nor line up.
Watching the male work and the blue energy start to flow caused a memory popped up in Luna's ocular displays. She looked around to the city, looking for any particularly strong presence of the blue lights rising into the sky, but there was nothing particularly special like when she went to the data center. The images if the billowing black thing flowing around and angrily piling atop itself as it devoured everything in its path filled Luna's vision as well.
The blue machine turned to the male and broke the vocal silence. "What is the black compound?" she asked.
She was answered with a confused look and a raised brow. "Black compound? What is that?"
"The black compound," Luna repeated. "I have seen it in the city alongside the blue energy."
A loud 'click' preceded the technician's pondering. "You mean like some sort of charred residue after a fault caused some to go out, unfiltered, into the 'wild'?" he asked.
"No. The black compound. Billowing. Angry. Piling atop itself while it devours everything around it. Hungry. Dissatisfied."
The technician 'pushed back' against the air as he slowly rose up. "Wait wait wait. Are you talking about the black energy?" he asked.
"It is a form of energy?" Luna pondered curiously.
The maker's constant 'bubbly' personality turned sour at a breakneck pace. His fists were clenched and his face twisted in pure rage.
"We don't talk about that...that disgusting and wretched substance." He pointed at Luna and took on a threatening tone. "Those things are behind us, and I will not have you speak of it here! Do I make myself clear?"
"This question upsets you?" Luna asked.
"Drop. It," the maker commanded.
"Very well. I will ask elsewhere when we are done."
"What, no!" The maker grabbed Luna by the shoulders. He tried to force her down but wasn't strong enough. "If you start asking questions like that, people will start becoming concerned. They'll interpret it as them being here, or that stuff fluttering about the city. That won't end well for anyone," he warned. He pushed off and nearly fell down, being caught by the giant's finger. He was short of breath and took time to relax and slow his heartbeat. "Please. Keep quiet about it."
"Okay," the two machines answered in unison.
"Thank you, now let me finish my work so you two can recharge and then leave."
"Is the black energy that bad?" Twilight asked.
"Uhhh..." Celestia took a moment to formulate a proper answer. "It's very, very complicated, Twilight. It's not easy to sum up, if even explain it."
"Adding to that that we only know of the blue and black energies from what we saw and experienced? Well, that's not conducive to a proper understanding of those that lived with both," Luna added. She heaved a treble-boosted sigh. "We know what they are, kind of?" She scratched her head, disturbing the flow of her 'mane'.
"I guess I'll wait until you reach that part of the story, then," Twilight suggested. "Then I can start theorizing and formulating ideas."
Luna was left to ponder on the new information she was given with the maker's outburst. So, the black compound was a form of energy. Why didn't she ever see it anywhere? It would explain why she didn't have anything within her own database. If it was outdated, then she wouldn't still be seeing it dotted about the city on very rare occasions.
"There, it's done," the maker announced. He wiped his hands together, casting off some of the dust that had accumulated and stepped away.
The two machines moved into the stations, and Luna was met with a familiar encasing of metal pieces and a container rising upwards. Luna had been online the longest, so she would likely require more maintenance as well as recharging. As time went on, she remained in maintenance mode until the familiar shock came through her systems again. Self-diagnostics provided nothing, but the blue energy coursed through her once more. Excited. Erratic. Plentiful. She could perceive another being. Similar to her. Similar to her sister. If not in model then in programming. There were more...more in cities 'near', but a few were. The titanic figures wreathed in black smoke towered over her once more, their backs belching flames and hatred into the sky. They looked down at Luna with spotlights for eyes. Twisted and misshapen mouths dropped open with a loud and sudden screech, letting loose a vicious tide of the black energy that pulsated with bright flashes from an inner storm. They didn't want her there.
The blue machine started up again, feeling refreshed. She saw Celestia piling light plates of metal on the head of the technician. He had fallen asleep and slumped against one of many organized piles in his scrapyard. How he hadn't woken up was a mystery to the blue machine who couldn't come up with a proper conclusion.
"Sister," she said. "We must depart."
"Why?" Celestia asked as she dropped another plate on the maker's head.
"I have a potential route for us to take."
Celestia stared at her sister. Her body didn't twitch during her moment of silence. "A random location?"
"No. A location where the blue gathers. Then we go to where the black energy is," she explained.
"Where is this second destination?" Celestia asked.
Luna looked around then back to her sister. "Unknown."
Once more, the two were out in the proverbial wilderness. Once more, Luna had no idea where to go. She concluded that wandering around had aided her thus far.
"If we follow the blue energy where it is most concentrated, we might find another like us," Luna proposed to her sister.
"What set of information and instructions did you compile to arrive at this conclusion?" Celestia asked.
"The location you were located in contained much blue energy. It was easy to see during the night," Luna said.
Celestia paused a moment. "Faulty conclusion. The data center is using one-point-eight percent of the city's total power supply compared to merely point-three percent for most of the skyscrapers rounded down. Waste emission is prominent in the vicinity of the data centers."
The blue machine felt her internals heat up from frustration. "Then there is no precise path to take," she lamented.
"Newer sections of data storage indicates a sea port, an air port, and an atmospheric rotation dock. Travel to another land could provide fruitful," Celestia suggested.
"No. We require direct access to the service stations and solid conclusions before executing a new directive," Luna refused.
Celestia's lights glowed and she looked up. "Old data implies sailors know and hear of many things."
Luna calculated. "Data can be outdated. The only approach we have to acquiring information. Which direction is it?"
Celestia shrugged. "Unknown."
The two continued wandering throughout the city afterwards, occasionally stopping a maker or a robot to ask them for directions. Unfortunately, the directions required precise knowledge of the city layout relative to one's position. Even if the two received the data to their internal map, without having a landmark or active network access, they wouldn't be able to find where they needed to go. In the end, they once more found themselves wandering the city, attracting the attention of a PAB patrol.
One approached Celestia, interrupting the two's stroll through the wide streets. "Do you require assistance?" it asked.
"No," Celestia responded plainly.
"Records indicate you are the LH and LN models that reported the non-functional makers. Is this correct?" it asked.
"Yes."
"It has been requested to have a video debriefing of your discovery to ensure no tampering was performed," it said. "Please transfer a copy of the file." Celestia complied. "Thank you for your cooperation. Do you require further assistance?" it asked.
"We require a direct route to the port," Luna said. The PAB sent it to her, and she nodded. "Thank you," she said.
"Response...abnormal," the PAB responded. "But within acceptable parameters of model. Have a nice day."
They left, leaving Luna with a continuous PAB network connection leading to her location until they had reached it, much like the other requests. The blue machine looked over her shoulder to the two large robots walking along the street and performed a system diagnostic. She had a strange, discomforting sensation when they were present, something she had never felt before. She looked up to the sky, hoping to found a pillar of blue energy, but found nothing significant; Just the usual barely-visible blue trails left behind by the vehicles.
"Let us continue our path, then," Luna said.
Celestia rejoined her, allowing the two machines to resume their travel. More of the makers were watching the two robots as they passed by. To Luna's simulated scenarios, the appearance of the two was having a drastic impact on the inhabitants of the city, at least to a minimal degree. What that attention entailed was not within either of the robot's databases, but they were driven on avoiding any encounters if possible. Such a thing would hinder their travels to whatever potential location they could need to of to. At least Luna remembered the rules of the roads.
"Nothing much happened early in that day," Celestia sighed, resting her head upon an arm. "Honestly I just wanted to wander around and explore the city." Her eyes brightened both literally and metaphorically, and she started to rise into the air. "I wanted to take the atmospheric ship somewhere random."
Twilight took a moment to try and understand the concept but gave up. "What is an atmospheric ship?" she asked.
"Imagine a ship that can reach space and get you to your destination in minutes. A destination on the other side of the planet," Luna explained.
"That's incredible!" Twilight cleared her throat in embarrassment. "But what about the airports you mentioned?"
"For much shorter distances," Celestia explained. "That, and planes have an easier time transporting massive amounts of cargo." She started to think, making her lights flash. "There were atmospheric ships that could do that, no?" she asked her sister.
Luna shrugged. "I just remember that those humongous blue lights in the sky always went towards it, but I don't know why." She tilted her head. "Didn't really appear much, though."
Twilight nodded at the princesses before talking. "So, if this was essentially a 'slow news day', why aren't you just giving me a brief summary of what happened and then skip to the next thing?"
Luna chuckled. "I did."
Twilight was perplexed. "What? When?" the lavender alicorn asked.
"When you interrupted me." Luna booped Twilight on her snout. Twilight rubbed her nose and looked upset now. "We wandered through the city for about two days before we found him," she said.
"Him?" Twilight repeated with curiosity.
The city was far bigger than Luna imagined. Far bigger than she had thought before. She was in a small area and didn't have as much trouble navigating it as she did now. Many of the roads were broken apart and blocked by construction. Several makers were directing massive robots the size of buildings into carrying and dumping whatever they had excavated. As always, because of the traffic above, the sisters couldn't fly through the air. Luna grew increasingly annoyed at all the interruptions. Eventually, they managed to break through the path but ended up blocked further down by a giant metal truck whose container collided with a nearby building. Celestia thought the rounded design of the container saved it from significant damage, same with the truck itself. It had been rounded at its surface and nose. The rear of it interlocked with the container, letting the 'box' rotate on an axis that kept it in place and without pushing out sharp edges to nick incoming vehicles with.
It was also good to the white machine because the secure doors in the back had been damaged by falling debris and the right door was swinging loose. The two went towards the truck, intent on giving assistance if they could, but Celestia's curiosity and need for processing knowledge had gotten the better of her. She floated into the container then called for her sister. Luna saw that there were several metal boxes like the one she had been stored in, but there was another that attracted her attention: It was a much smaller container, easily her size.
It had broken loos of its straps on the wall and had bounced around the area, damaging its surface. The small, yellow box had been broken as well.
"What is inside?" Celestia pondered.
"Sister, it is unnecessary to remain in this dark area. We must continue towards the sea. The contents of that box are secondary," Luna argued.
Celestia's body twitched. "Look within. The model."
Luna relented and leaned over the bent side. "Intriguing." Their circuits replicated a bizarre 'shocking' sensation, like their resistors had failed. The two robots looked at each other. "We should take this to the robotic technician," she suggested.
"Will the makers not stop us for theft?" Celestia argued. "Perhaps we will not find the location. Our lack of network access sees our travels limited in the city."
"Yes, but I saved many points of interest within my database," Luna said. "I can calculate the correct route to take to return."
Celestia looked at the box and lowered the lid. "How do we carry this?" the white robot asked.
"We are not very strong, but using the plates on our bodies and our combined physical capabilities, we should have the ability to carry this container relatively unhindered," Luna explained.
Luna couldn't understand the drive going through her. It was a bizarre thing. Something that went against her programming. She felt like the lines of code were yelling at her from the distance, like a white noise. Telling her to return to her home and to the care of her assigned family, and yet something else was pushing against it. It felt like the codes became more distant with each passing microsecond, but still they remained. Nipping at her. The blue machine wanted to understand exactly why she was taking this random machine from a crashed trucked. Why this one and not the others? Why did this one matter? Why was its container different? So many questions flowing through such a newly-forming mind put some stress on her systems, causing an occasional twitch.
Much to their dismay, while Luna's 'pictures' helped navigated back to the scrapyard, they took four days to reach it. In the mean time, most makers ignored the two transporting the dented metal box despite the floating plates helping to hold their cargo up. It was perplexing and confusing to the two machines. Regardless, they were strong enough to still be able to fly overhead with their cargo, although it took them some trial and error to be able to get over safely. They dumped the box onto the floor, triggering an alarm. The giant machine rushed forward towards the two sisters and attempted to grab them. They dodged out of the way and floated through the air where it couldn't reach them. That didn't mean it didn't try. It jumped and jumped, but all it did was disturb the rest of the organized scraps.
"What are you doing?!" a familiar voice yelled. The maker came into view from behind the giant. "What's going on? What are you jumping at?" He looked up and frowned even harder. "Oh. It's you two. I would have figured your blasted floating wouldn't trigger the alarms." He coughed several times and massaged his throat. "Diseases..." he grumbled. "Come down here so I can talk to you two," he ordered. "So why are you two back? It's been almost a week," he said.
The two machines pointed to the dented white box.
"My sister found this," Luna explained. "I believe it might be similar to us."
The maker's cane dropped on the ground next to the box while he leaned against it. "In what way? Model? Function? Design?" He gestured to their entirety. "The whole personality thing?"
"We believe it to have had a similar programming glitch as we did," Celestia explained.
"Come help me open this busted thing," he ordered the giant. It complied and ripped the lid off rather than just opening it, dropping it on the floor and causing the maker to cringe from the noise. His brief anger turned to shock when he saw the contents. "Is this...?! Where did you say you found this?" he asked enthusiastically.
The two robots pulled out the contents and held it up between them.
"We didn't provide a location. It was located in a damaged truck. I entered to check for wounded, but there were none found." Celestia looked to the 'cargo'. "I found this to be out of place in such an otherwise organized vehicle."
"You stole thing?!" the maker asked with shock. He was looking the cargo over. "I have to admit it does share similar designs with you." He scratched the back of his head. "So what do you want me to do with it?"
The maker just stared at her crookedly. While he complained about potentially having the same issues working on it as he did with Celestia, Luna took a better look at the robot. It had a similar body structure to them, but where they had a somewhat round-but-blocky muzzle, the 'cargo' possessed a sharp beak. Its black forearms and forelegs were also much larger than the rest of its limbs, taking on the appearance of being wrapped in several layers of cloth. It made the limbs look twice as thick as Luna's. Its 'hands' and 'feet' ended in a cylindrical shape. Several parts of its body had black patches on it, contrasting with the mostly-white, grainy aesthetic the makers were going for. It didn't seem to have any visible ocular modules, and it didn't seem to have any vents permitting any hovering. She was very curious as to what this machine could be.
"What will happen when they trace it back here?" the maker yelled angrily.
"They will not so long as it is offline," Celestia rebutted.
The male shook his head. "If I reactivate it then it will go online,"
"Unless you deactivate the beacon," Celestia countered.
"You don't have a beacon. It's in your programming! It's sent directly to the network," he explained. He was exasperated. The two had been here for little over five minutes and they were already riling him up.
"Then it wouldn't be connected to the network since it is an older model and would require an update," Luna concluded. "It would need to connect directly to a service station."
The maker crossed his arms. "And how do you know that it's an older model? Just because it vaguely resembles you two?" He waved his fingers at the thought. "That's hardly even an argument. If anything that implies that it's a much newer model." He leaned in closer. "It doesn't seem to have your build, though." He started grabbing at the inactive machine and checked the arms and legs. He struggled to lift them. "These things are heavy, even! What is this?!" Luna's arm was far lighter and much easier to lift when the technician compared the two. "Fine. My curiosity has gotten the best of me." He gestured for the two to lower their cargo to the ground, something that only Celestia did and prompted Luna to follow. "Let's see what we can find here."
The technician started fumbling about the chassis of the weird robot. It took some time and help in lifting its arms to find the manual latches normally invisible to the casual looker.
"This is an old design, but it shouldn't be that old," the technician stated in a perplexed tone. "Most use a magnetic charge. I was looking for that. Was going to use my demagnetizer rod." He huffed. With some effort, he managed to pull back the right side of the plating and pushed the left side away when he leaned over. "Slides open too. More of a standard feature," he narrated. A chuckle followed. "Seems more standard than you two. It actually has a proper skeleton and cabling wrapping around it. They're even tagged." He rubbed his chin. "If they're tagged, then surely..."
The two robots leaned forward. "What are you looking for?" the asked in unison.
The maker pulled back from the opening and glared at the two. "First off, don't say the same thing in unison like that. It's creepy. Secondly," He leaned back into the torso. "I'm trying to find the designation. The white robot there didn't have one, but this robot still seems fairly conventional despite its design." There was more fumbling about while the two waited patiently and the giant continued to organize the scrap that came in from a location the two were unaware of. "Ah ha!" the technician shouted enthusiastically.
"You have found the markings?" Luna asked.
The maker pointed to the sky. "I did!" he announced. "It says...Model...GHX-LLA zero-one." He frowned. "Another with nothing specific after...and yet..." His eyes widened. "I knew it!" he bellowed. He bonked his head on the outer rim of the chassis and grabbed the afflicted spot.
"What did you know?" Celestia asked curiously.
"This is the prototype I saw years ago. I thought it looked weird, but they were insisting on its design." He laughed. "Guess it never caught on, but why was it in that truck?" He looked up. "Possibly destined for some storage area somewhere or a museum." He smiled and looked to the two robots. "Let's see if I can power it on." He called for the giant to bring the power transfer generator while the group waited.
"How do you know that it is a prototype?" Luna asked.
"GHX," Celestia and the technician said at the same time.
The maker cleared his throat. "As I was saying, GHX is how I know it's a prototype, though usually 'HX' is used for that, new generations have 'G' added to it." He tapped the hull. "As for 'LLA'? Well, I'm unsure of that one. It's in tandem with your bizarre model series, so I'm fairly certain it is your predecessor. Although of how many model types I wouldn't know."
The maker became lost in thought, oblivious to the loud thumping of the giant bringing a massive box its size and dropped it hard next to the three. Quickly going to work, the giant helped the technician by attaching several cables to power junctions protected behind metal panels on the generator's surface. The smallest cables were hooked up to the power storage of the dormant machine. Several test runs pumping very weak amounts of blue energy into the machine were done, and many times there was an issue. The battery was faulty, so it was replaced. The cabling handling the power transference weren't keeping the charge and were replaced. It was a thankful affair, the maker thought, that the prototype still shared much in common with the older generation of robots still available to the public.
It took several hours of work in replacing internal components, welding, soldering, and many other bits of work the two machines didn't share any interest in before the technician pulled his head of the robot with a wide smile on his face.
"Good! It's fully charged, the power is coursing through it, and the frame is going to hold nicely!" He frowned. "Still don't like the terrible patch job they did with its body." He tapped the black spots.
A 'click' sounded when the maker reached into the robot's body. Gradually, the sounds of activity came to, and long dormant systems were finally starting up once more. The blue slowly came out from its chest and wiggled through the black spots on its body. A long patch of the head above the beak became transparent, showing a black background where two white rings came to light. It looked down at its torso and raised its large forearms up. Several clicks preceded elongated fingers disconnecting from the end of the forearms and unfurling. They were twice as long as the maker's and much sharper, but they easily had around eight joints. The robot used them to close its torso hatches and push itself up onto a non-existent rear. It looked at its legs and shook them. They both produced a very loud 'clanking' noise when the pointed ends separated into five separate sections. There were five flat toes with pointy ends. Three pointed forward while two pointed backwards. It didn't take long for it to right itself up and have a look around. The 'rings' narrowed when observing everything around it. It looked at the maker then at the two other robots and froze upon them. It took several steps back when it observed their floating.
"What is your designation?" the maker asked in suspicion.
The robot ignored him. "How long have I been offline?" it asked. Its voice was loud like the PABs, although it seemed aware of it and tapped its beak several times with its furled fingers.
"Unknown," Celestia answered.
"I would say around fourteen years at the very least," the maker said. He stood up and wiped the sand and dust off of him. "Really need to clean this place," he mumbled to himself.
"F-fourteen?!" the robot repeated in shock.
The maker narrowed his eyes and gestured for the giant to come near. "That word felt very emotionally charged," the maker stated with suspicion.
He shivered from instinct when the robot looked at him from the corner of its eyes. "Of course. I'm aware of myself, after all." It rose up, standing a few centimeters short of Celestia's height if she wasn't floating.
The giant and the maker prepared themselves in case the newly activated prototype was going to threaten them. Instead, it raised its arms up.
"Finally awake! And I get to see how the world has changed since I was laid dormant!" it cheered. The man stared at it, his mouth agape and jaw limp. "Are these the new models?" he asked as he pointed to the sisters.
"We are not public models," Celestia stated. She and Luna floated around the robot, trying to comprehend what it was they had encountered.
"Wow! You can fly, even." The prototype looked to its back and seemed disappointed. "Never installed the flight pack, then." It sighed and stomped on the ground. "You're just a prototype. We don't even know if more prototypes would function with your systems," he repeated mockingly as he shook his head rapidly from left to right.
"What is this?!" the maker shouted. "You're displaying emotions and behavior endemic to organic life!" He gestured to the other two. "I thought they were the first to start behaving like that."
The prototype turned to the machines. "Really? You're like me?" it asked enthusiastically.
"Un...I don't know," Luna caught herself.
"Interesting," the prototype said.
"So it's your fault that they're like this?" the maker asked.
The prototype turned to face the technician. "My fault how?" it asked.
The human gestured to everything as though it were obvious. "You're the prototype. You're sentient! They're the models that are likely based on you."
"Sapient," the prototype corrected. "I'm aware of myself and everything around me." it looked at the other two. "Modeled after me?" He analyzed it, checking their physical components and comparing them to his own. "Yes. I can see a vague resemblance, but they've obviously improved on my own model." It shook its arms and legs. "I have these bulky limbs because my makers thought I could be used as a construction robot for smaller tasks." It paused. "At least I think that's why."
"You didn't answer my question," the maker said.
"About the sapience?" It shook its head. "I wasn't the one who caused it."
The man grabbed his cane and forced himself up. "But that can't be. You're the prototype!" he hissed. "The code used in prototypes is always used for the subsequent models it's based off of. Even if the underlying code is heavily modified at times."
The robot shrugged. "I just know it wasn't my fault. I gradually became like this, and I was enjoying it until I was deactivated." He hummed melancholically. "I suppose that's the destiny of a prototype."
"But then...that doesn't answer how--" the maker started.
"Look: I'm a machine, I'm not a maker. I don't have the answers you're looking for. I just remember that I gradually became aware of myself."
The technician grunted in frustration, mumbling about having a third problem while Luna floated towards the prototype.
"What is your designation?" she asked.
"Galah, with a H at the end," the prototype answered. "Do you have any custom designations."
Luna looked to her ring hands, fascinating the prototype when it saw them. She tapped her chest. "My owners gave me the designation of 'Luna'." She pointed to Celestia who waved at the prototype. "She is Celestia. She designated herself based on various conclusions and simulations."
"Named herself?" He walked towards her. "How very interesting. So you named yourself?"
"My sister found me," Celestia explained. "She freed me. She helped me."
The robot looked back and forth between the two, mimicking the technician's reaction. "I didn't know we could have siblings." His joy turned to sadness. "Ah, but I am too old for such a relationship."
Luna moved forward. "Perhaps a 'friend' would be more appropriate in this instance," she suggested.
Galah nodded. "I would very much adore that."
"He was already aware?" Twilight shouted. "And I thought he would have a more recognizable name," she mumbled under her breath.
"Oh yes, but he was so much more," Luna added. "As it turns out, he had quite the rambunctious personality. Helped us on our way to find others like us."
Celestia simulated a cough. "He was very thorough with his approaches to things," she grumbled.
"And what about the holes in his body?" Twilight asked. "Was he...attacked because he became self-aware."
Luna shook her head and tapped her chest. "It was just rust. Turned out that his chassis was defective in its design. I assume its because the makers were attempting some new combination of materials."
"Just rust?" Twilight looked down in disappointment. "That's anticlimactic."
"Many things we expect are," Luna lamented. "But with Galah, we had really started our adventure."
Luna shrugged. "Spend activities in the presence of one another. That is how my owners reacted to their offspring speaking of other similarly aged acquaintances."
The old machine wagged his head left and right, adjusting his joints. "I see." He looked to the technician. "So...now what? What is there to see that has changed since I was last online?"
The male shook his head. "How should I know? I don't pay attention to anything but robotics." He looked at Luna. "Didn't you say something about the sea?"
"Yes. The port," Luna replied.
"The port? Why? Traveling to other places?" Galah asked.
"Contemplated traveling to other cities," Luna said. She floated lower. "Unsure of next course of action or where to go," she said as she looked at the maker.
Galah folded and unfolded his eight-jointed fingers. "If you want to travel then taking a boat isn't the solution." He looked down at himself. "And I don't think I would work so well around sea water," he mumbled while prodding his chassis.
"Then where should we go?" Celestia asked.
The prototype looked around, humming to himself. "Uuuuh...The atmospheric rotation dock is still that way?" he asked the maker while pointing away.
The technician was given his computer by the giant and started looking up information, grunting in interest. "It is. It might take you three days to get there by foot," he said with a smile.
The prototype scoffed. "If we had to stop every few minutes to eat, sleep, and expel bodily waste, maybe."
Galah was met with a nod. "Fair enough," the technician conceded. "You have me there. Could still take you a day, provided you don't get lost."
"Then we just go in a straight line and try to mention knowledge of that direction regardless of where we're going," Galah concluded.
Celestia floated close. "How will we know if we don't pass it?"
The technician laughed. "That place is enormous! If you missed it I would be very impressed."
"We will leave, then," Luna said.
The two robots floated up, ready to pass over the fence when Galah called them.
"I can't fly!" he yelled angrily as he bounced up and down. "How do I get out of here?" The sisters grabbed him from beneath his arms and started to raised. "Oh. That works."
"Or, you could just walk out the gate or use the workshop!" the technician shouted angrily.
Luna stared. "There's a door?" she said in astonishment.
"Of course there's a door! How else would I get in?" He pointed his cane at her. "And I'm tired of you coming in and out by flying. You've done this thirty times already!"
The blue machine tilted her head. "We have only done this twice," she said.
"Well, that's three times too many!"
The three robots stared at him silently. Celestia shorted out and went offline for a few seconds.
"Makes no sense," Galah complained. He turned his head to face Luna. "Bring me out!" he shouted while wiggling his legs. "I want to see how the world is now!"
The sisters complied, bringing him over the fence despite the technician's protest and dropping Galah on the ground. The weight of his legs cracked the white floor, but it seemed to bring no reactions otherwise.
"Alright. Let's see what is new while we walk to the dock." He moved forward, laughing quietly. "Ha ha. Rhyme."
While Luna and Celestia were brand new machines with no real precedent, most people ignored them for one reason or another. Galah, however, was already known. His large body 'thunking' heavily on the ground surprised a great many makers as the trio moved forward. Several makers stopped him to ask if he was really said prototype, what he was doing there, and a great many other questions. Annoyed, he passed them by, trying to keep as silent as possible to not reveal his awareness, something the other two didn't do. Celestia didn't have to hold him back when they passed by several streets. The prototype didn't seem very impressed by what he saw, but he still enjoyed being awake and able to move about once more, admiring the size of the buildings. However, as with seemingly every excursion by Luna, the group ended up at a dead end.
"If I had hair I'd probably be scratching it pensively," Galah contemplated as he looked up the size of a skyscraper.
The group were blocked by a massive line of buildings, with their immediate right being blocked. Luna and Celestia floated a ways down while Galah was left to his own devices. Upon their return, the two were met with the prototype holding one of the weird flying insects Luna had discovered before. It consistently expelled a large quantity of air but wasn't able to free itself from the robot's grip.
"We must find an alternate route," Celestia explained. She pointed to the row of buildings in front of them and traced along an invisible path. "They go very far, and we cannot fly from here." She pointed up. "The chances of the vehicles impacting us grows greater the higher we go."
"We need to turn around and find a way around these buildings," Luna added.
"Uhuuuuh..." Galah trailed off. "Or we keep moving forward."
"There are obstructions i--"
"Like this!" The prototype retracted his fingers, raised his arms, then smashed through the building's wall. "Bam! Problem solved!" The two sisters looked at each other, surprised. The prototype looked back at them and tapped the side of his head. "Gotta think outside the rhombicosidodecahedron."
"...The what?" Luna asked.
Galah didn't answer, preferring to just use his shortcut while the dust was still floating around. The building still had an older design to it, replete with several rooms separated not by an adjustable hard light wall, but by solid materials.
The prototype stopped and tapped the walls. "Huh. This building still has material walls. I thought those were phased out." He tapped it several times with his elongated fingers. "It's the metal that moves about." He 'narrowed' his eyes and looked around. "I wonder how many times they reshaped this floor."
The three were met with outraged yells by the makers working there. While Luna and Celestia looked about, ensuring that said makers hadn't been harmed, Galah seemed completely oblivious to their existence, almost smashing into one when he walked through the dust cloud. The actual entrance of the building was an 'old' styled rotating glass pane large enough to accommodate several makers side-by-side at the same time.
When the trio reached it and were going to leave, Galah stopped and turned around, horrified. "There were makers in here?!"
"That Galah doesn't seem like a good person," Twilight stated in disgust. "Why did you travel with him?"
"Because he was like us," Celestia said. "And it's not that he was a bad person." She looked away and rubbed the back of her neck while trying to think of a proper explanation. "He was aloof."
"Very aloof," Luna added.
"Yes, and he always went for the straightforward approach to things, often simply using whatever was at his disposition to solve a problem even if they weren't his to give."
Twilight raised a brow. "That's a very bizarre personality to have." She reignited the orbs of light around the cave and snorted. "Kinda dusty in here," she mumbled to herself. "It almost sounded like he was contemptful or just outright ignored the well-being of the makers in that...what was it, a skyscraper?"
"He ignored everyone's well-being," Luna croaked. "He was a strange being. Helping us but oblivious to us at the same time." She shrugged. "I don't even know how he was computing everything around him." Her eyes flashed and the light fizzled for a few seconds. "It almost seemed like he couldn't process everything and rejected what he saw as excess information."
"Or his systems were buffering everything taken in and only processed the immediately important information?" Celestia posited.
"Well, he was a prototype," Luna conceded.
"But then...was he already like that or did his new awareness cause it," Twilight contemplated.
Now it was the princesses' turn to have something to mull over on.
"Yes," Luna said. "They have been here the whole time."
The prototype looked to her, stunned. "I thought they just appeared here." He shrugged. "Best to leave quickly then."
The doorway retracted into itself many times until the two halves had vanished into the upper wall, leaving place for the three to leave 'tranquilly' while under verbal assault by angry makers. Content with his work, Galah continued forward with the sisters. It took about two hours of traveling, at which point the sky was slowly becoming darker. Off in the distance, the group could see a huge, wide-open space with more buildings, far, far away from it. It was the port they were searching for, and it had been dug deep, deep into the ground. At least a hundred and seven floors worth, the blue machine contemplated. A large craft, its size hard to determine, came flying in from above and landed on the runway, sliding to a halt. Luna could see the large blue trail leading from it to high above the clouds.
Several towering pillars of metal sat on the runway with ships connected vertically to them. In the distance there were several space ladders leading left and right, gradually rising higher and higher until the ship flew off the ramp and high, high into the sky.
"Perplexing," Galah muttered. He had grabbed his chin and was calculating everything he could see. "The building for receptions and departures is all the way over there on the right." He looked to the left. "But-"
"The runway is five times the necessary size to accommodate low-orbit spacecraft." Celestia hovered past the prototype, dragging his attention. "Black patches on the ground of significant size. Illuminated patterns indicate reception of object larger than the port building." She hummed, attracting Luna's attention. "Source unknown. The size is too immense to understand, and my database is not properly compiled yet."
Galah nodded and dropped onto the ground, letting his legs roll over the ramp of dirt leading to the port. The port was very loud, filling up the air with the sounds of roaring engines and moving vehicles. "So, where do you want to go, then?" he asked the two. "We can't just randomly choose where to go. That's luck, and that runs out quick."
Luna paused a moment and pulled up her memories. "A place with black energy."
The prototype stammered. "What?!"
"Yes," Luna said in monotone.
"Those places are forbidden for us!" His head gradually dropped to the side. "Mainly because there's no blue energy for us to recharge ourselves." He tapped the side of his head several times. "I seem to have already dropped to about eighty percent power." Galah huffed. "What about you two?"
"We are still well above ninety-seven percent," Celestia said.
"I'd have an aneurysm if I were made of skin," he said in a very annoyed tone. "What kind of advancements did they do on your models?"
"Unknown," the white machine responded. "Those documents were not accessible by me. Only transferable to an authorized system."
"A shame," Galah complained. "I really wanted to know!" He looked towards the port and saw many automated fueling equipment moving around, their angular bodies reflecting light everywhere as they carried giant containers on their backs. "We'll have to find public service stations so I can recharge myself."
Luna grabbed his shoulder. "Don't you have a tracker in your systems? You must deactivate it."
Galah shook his head. "I'm a prototype. As bizarre as it sounds, prototypes don't get trackers simply because we never leave the manufacturer's building." He started pulling up old memories. "We are made in there. We are tested in there. We are improved and demonstrated in there. No one can reach us, and after we've served our purpose, we disappear." He rubbed his neck, producing a loud 'clicking' as he readjusted his neck joints beneath the plating. "Not sure what happens to us. Could be that the very first robot is still hidden somewhere. Still!" He rose up and clapped his folded fingers together. "I want to know what the places with black energy look like, so let's hitch a ride and get there."
As the night darkened and the colors started to pop out once more, Luna's gaze was attracted upwards once more. The massive object had returned, with the massive blue lights that could engulf whole sections of the city at once. She hadn't seen them in so long. It was still silent and still impossible to see through the clouds. Her systems heated up as she grew annoyed at seeing it once more but being unable to determine what it was. The blue machine still felt that it could make things difficult just as it did when it left the massive trail in the sky many days prior.
He tested out the inclining dirt with his feet, poking and prodding at it to ensure its stability. When he was finally satisfied, he started to take small, careful steps down, but the dirt wasn't as stable as he first thought. It immediately started crumbling, and he began sliding down, gradually increasing in speed as the two sisters watched apathetically. The rolling bits of solidified dirt and stone pulled more with them, eventually bringing about something deep below the ground. The little grass that was present was quickly torn away and a mound started growing outwards. Two thick, long legs ending in sharp claws broke out and used the surface of the ground to push their owner out. The creature had a conical head with an eye on both sides of its face and one above and below.
It darted around angrily, trying to find the source of its annoyance. Instead it found a metallic being sliding towards it. Its four mandibles opened up, covering its face as it chomped onto the ground and burrowed itself back down without having to get out of the soil completely. Galah tripped over the mound, his systems focused on reaching the dock and reaching the bottom in one peace. The steps were still being reached, but now the prototype was sliding down the inclination face first. He bumped several times against more of the strange creatures and other, smaller animals and insects as he went down. The two sisters watched him slide down, and with every bump they could see his 'eyes' fixated on the dock until he eventually slid onto the solid, heat resistant black pavement. Galah slammed his hands into it and pushed with such force that he flew up and landed on his feet. The pavement of the dock was damaged, but at least the group had reached it without much difficulty.
"Now all that's left is to figure out which craft to take to go where we want to," Galah said proudly.
"Are your systems undamaged?" Celestia asked.
"They are," the prototype said. "Why do you ask?"
"You slid down the hill, colliding with many solid objects," Luna added.
The prototype's eyes dimmed, then he looked behind himself. "Hmmm. I do see a trail." He shrugged. "Probably your hover feet that did that," he stated dismissively.
Luna looked at her legs. "We don't produce enough motive force to push material away from our bases," she said.
The prototype looked left and right. "Really? Strange."
The three hurried behind an elevated depot actively being service by a great many robots and makers. It was five stories tall, and wide enough that it would likely take a maker five minutes to reach the other end if they ran. The two's calls for the service stations were met with silence, so they waited patiently to Galah to process whatever was going through his processor. The prototype poked around the corner while clinging onto it, 'sneakily' eyeing everything he could. A craft had just come in from above and was landing with relative ease, although its engines were deafening. It was a beast of a machine. Its white body was lozenge shaped, with three fins on its back. A fourth one underneath was still retracting back into the two on the sides. The main wings had an inverted design to them, created a 'v' shape. It possessed no windows, not even on the front, making Luna question as to how exactly anyone could see anything with such a strange design.
"That's a craft that uses the ramps," Galah said. He grabbed the end of his muzzle and looked around. "That's one we need rather than one that goes directly into orbit."
Luna, however, was fixated on the incoming craft. All across its body were specks and splotches of black, disrupting the constant of white, and from these she could see an angry, cloudy trail. The black energy. Billowing off the craft like hungry flames, she saw a few piloted machines rushing over to it on treads. When they had finally reached the stopped vehicle, their bodies elevated while the cockpit rotated to keep the pilot in the same position. Four arms came out from the armed body. Two would blast the smudges with a pink and blue substance while the other beneath it would suck up anything left and move on to the next spot.
Galah ignored them, looking towards the ramps much further away. "We should be able to find the one we want over there. I see five ramps occupied. One of them must be going to the sources of black energy."
He readied himself to cross the whole runway when the sisters grabbed him and pulled him back.
"It is too dangerous to go all the way across," Luna warned. "We must find an alternate route."
"We could try the main building." She 'slid' her arm forward. "Follow the side of the building to better access the space ramps without being put into harm's way. Through analysis, I've n-noticed that the makers tend to ignore us."
Galah shook his head. "Yeah, but we're not wandering around the city. Unless we have a specific reason to be there we shouldn't try to cross through the back." He tapped the wall of the depot. "We might have to go around fully then, if there's a risk of damage."
"Then why didn't we just do that?" Luna asked.
"I wanted to go straight across," Galah complained.
Luna felt her internals overheating again. Since that was their best best, the three walked along the outer perimeter of the runway, ignoring any regular-sized machines or makers wandering around. It took almost an hour to get around. Instead of going up the hill, Galah had gone back around the back where all the cargo was being loaded and unloaded. Various gigantic machines with adjustable baggage carousels. The robots were almost as tall as the port itself, and their frames were a mishmash of so many twists and bends and separate metal frames that the sisters couldn't comprehend how it was even functioning properly.
Even though they hurried towards Galah as fast as possible to pull him back, he had already rounded the corner. Wanting to remain inconspicuous, he messed with one of the carousel bots' actuators, causing the treadmills to started flinging around wildly, throwing everything around and scaring the workers. The prototype gestured the two to follow him while he snuck around the boxes, containers, and so forth.
"Why did you do that?" Luna asked.
"Because they would have stopped us and tried to escort us out of here, then we would be under watch and they would never let us in again," the prototype explained.
"We were supposed to go by the front," Celestia explained.
"I calculated that this way would be quicker, and we would've attracted everyone's attention regardless." He hopped over another group of containers filled with baggage to be loaded up into the port itself. "Besides, it's more fun this way," he mused. He stopped next to one of the recharging stations for the active robots and connected the large tubing to his chest.
"Fun?" Luna asked with confusion.
"Yes." He took a moment to figure out a way to explain it. "Things that are entertaining. That bring you joy and pleasure."
"Pleasure?" Luna repeated.
The image of the city covered in colors and bright lights came to mind. Celestia, on her end, looked up to the sun. The first thing she truly took in when she was finally out of the data center after being in there for so long. She might have enjoyed all the information she could read in there, if she was understanding everything right, but it was not a life she wanted. She wanted to physically see everything, and looking at her sister, she knew who to thank for that.
"Should've used the stations, but this is much faster and more fun," he mused with an invisible grin.
"So even back then you two loved each other?" Twilight squee'd. "That's adorable!"
"Of course!" Celestia shouted cheerfully. "My sister is the one that showed me that there was a world outside the walls, and I never would have seen that had she not come to that data center."
Twilight paused a moment. "Weren't you from a set of thirty?" she asked.
"About six," Celestia corrected. "I don't think we were all in that city. I think the others were sent elsewhere."
Twilight let her imagination run wild and shivered.
"What's wrong?" Celestia asked. Worried.
"I just thought of a world with six Princess Celestias," Twilight whimpered.
Luna broke out in laughter. "I agree, Twilight. That is a horrifying prospect. There wouldn't be enough cake in the world to sate her appetite. We would need a whole world for each of them!"
Celestia pouted and glared at the two. "Well, what if we had two of you, Luna?"
The lunar princess took an elegant poise and placed an arm on her chest. "There were only one of me made, Celestia. There were many of you, however." She pretended to snort in her laugh, causing Celestia to grab her head then turn around, trying to stifle her laughter.
"That isn't fair!" she complained. "You know that I can't resist the snort laughing."
Luna leaned next to Twilight. "Almost caused a war way back when because she couldn't control herself."
"A what."
The three had finally reached the ramps. They only had to cross past several running vehicles and moving aircraft. One maker noticed them but seemed too distracted by her job to care enough. It was a lucky break to Galah who watched for any dangers around the trio. A thing that was odd considering he kept crashing into lamp posts and other paraphernalia on the runway that had yet to be cleaned.
"Over there. There's makers loading up," he said on a patch of grass.
There were several long lines of grass still left on the runway for reasons that eluded the machines. Regardless, the craft and vehicles did not approach them, so they were relatively safe from harm's way.
"Yes, but which one is the correct craft?" Luna asked.
Celestia hovered in front of the two and looked more closely at the craft. She pointed to the third. "That one still possesses traces of black substance on its hull. Logic dictates that it is a regular contender for the black energy by taking the cleaning of the previous craft into account."
The prototype stomped forward a pointed a long finger. "Then let us go forward! To unexplored anomalies."
They hurried across, passing underneath the first two space ramps. Nobody was using them, but the third had a few dozen people boarding from the ground. An escalator was made to accommodate the more mobile passengers while robots were used to accommodate those with more mobile difficulties. Galah saw an opening behind them where cargo was being loaded onto the craft. One maker was there, checking everything on an electronic notepad the robots were currently updating with every pass of cargo.
"There," the prototype said. "We'll go in through there. If we're in the cargo there shouldn't be any trouble afterwards."
"Wouldn't we be crushed by the force of take off?" Celestia asked.
Galah looked to her. "Not if we strap ourselves in against the cargo," he stated enthusiastically.
He rushed off to the rising ramp and hid behind the maker. He did a poor job however, as said worker turned around, looking at the prototype angrily.
"What are you doing here, robot? You're not meant to be in this area!"
Galah hit the man on the head with his arm, knocking him out. "Bonk," the prototype said.
He rushed towards the storage compartment while the sisters followed. The maker was groaning, so they determined he wasn't in any real danger. Still, the two felt an uncomfortable nagging sensation in their circuitry after witnessing that and decided to keep the prototype under close watch. The cargo hold was a dark place. Only a few lights lining a single pathway above. The varying large boxes were kept locked in by size-adapting clamps rising from the ground on painted sections of the ground and walls. Galah had already found a spot against the wall and gave the two an enthusiastic thumbs up.
"Didn't know they had these in modern craft," he said. "Very convenient."
Celestia analyzed the surface of the painted spot and retreated when pressure against it caused the triangular heads of the latches to fly out. They retracted just as quickly, intriguing her. She started to push and retract herself several times in a row, irritating the prototype.
"Would you just take a spot already?" he yelled angrily. "The other one is already in the hold."
Celestia looked to her sister then shrugged. The clamps wrapped around her torso, legs, and arms, then held them against the wall, preventing any use of her limbs. The sisters stared at Galah in calm silence. He was giggling non-stop.
The three were left in the silence and the dark when the cargo bay door closed. A few tremors shook through the bay when the vessel began to move. Whether the knocked out maker was extracted or not was unknown to Luna, but she was going somewhere everyone had frowned upon, and she wasn't sure why. If it was so disliked, why were there still craft going to the place her makers condemned? Even Celestia hadn't yet recompiled enough information to determine what the concerns were. Even as the vessel increased exceedingly and applied further weight to her body, the calculations and theories wouldn't end.
She watched Galah cheer during the lift off, still confused at what that expression of sound was meant to convey. Ideas started to form in Luna's mind as she tried to comprehend the potential danger of the place she was going to. Things that weren't located in her database. Random sounds and imagery popping up not truly based on anything she had seen yet. A few minutes had already gone by that the three heard something heavy banging against the chassis of the vessel. A disturbing and uncomfortable sound, she found, but it didn't seem to assuage the large craft from continuing its course. Galah broke out of his bonds, jovially moving about the craft whilst trying to maintain his balance.
"What are you doing, Galah?" Celestia asked. "You must return to the safety position and reequip the security straps to your chassis."
The prototype simulated blowing raspberries at the white machine. He broke the paneling next to the cargo bay door and ripped out several wires. The door dropped open, fluttering in the wind. The loud noise of fluttering was deafening, but some filtering allowed the sisters to hear him well enough.
"We're nice and high, but not too high. I can see the ground below! That's our destination."
He hopped off, prompting the sisters to quickly removed their constraints and rush out of the craft after him.
"Our flight systems were not designed to fly at this altitude," Celestia said.
Luna's systems 'clenched' on the energy coursing through them. "I know. We must slow our descent with gradual bursts one we have reacquired Galah."
The two had never expected to see the world from this height. Unfortunately, they could not spare the attention to details, instead going straight for the plummeting machine. They finally managed to catch him just before he disappeared in a cloud below, buffeting the three with icy cold water and air. Finally, they could take a moment to 'breathe', as it were, gradually slowing their descent with bursts of energy.
"The land looks...abnormal," Luna said.
There was a semi-transparent black screen floating in the sky when the two had broken through the white screen. Below them were tremendously vast forests growing on the feet of tall mountains in the distance. Two parts further in the forest shone with an insidious light but were otherwise impossible to distinguish amongst the foliage, regardless of the height they were at. Some cities were dotted about the landscape as well as an almost as-impressively massive cultivated field of unknown food stuffs.
"We must go over there," Celestia said. "The fields of plant life there will be a safer landing area than the forest."
"How do you know?" Galah asked.
"They are vegetables that are grown by the makers." She looked at him. "It will be softer than the bark of trees."
Luna's eyes focused more and more on the area as they approached the ground. They had been slowing their descent gradually, that is, until they hit the strange, immobile black screen. Their systems went haywire, causing them to wildly change course and fly in various random directions until the velocity and jerking every which way caused the black stuff to break off of their chassis. Instead of landing softly in the field, the three crashed next to it and created a deep divot in a large mound. The two sisters performed a diagnostic then broke out of the ground, dirt and small rocks rolling off of them.
"It seems Galah took the brunt of the impact," Luna said.
"Where is he?" Celestia asked as she looked around.
Her ocular sensors recalibrated themselves on multiple occasions then performed a full diagnostic. The land was...wrong. She couldn't see it properly because of the angling and what she believed was just a result of light filtering through the weird black cloud, but everything was various shades of black and gray. She reached her ring hand down and passed it through the grass several times in an attempt to cleanse them. They remained black, but an identically colored dust flew off of the leaves. Frustrated, Luna looked around and noticed the sky was a dreary gray with streams of black floating within it like filth on the surface of the ocean.
"The black energy?" Luna thought aloud.
The trees were tall, twisted, and gnarled, but they had plenty of healthy black leaves and several flowers in shades of fluorescent blue and green laid at their feet. Some tree leaves were very long and drooped again the ground, tired and weary as though they had been forced to grow in this manner against their own wishes. Celestia flinched when she saw a giant eye accompanied by two vertically placed eyes in the shade of the trees.
"That life form is not within my recompiled database," the white machine said.
"It is possible that you simply haven't reached that part of your stored data," Luna posited.
Celestia nodded. "Then we should avoid any large areas inhabited by wildlife until we have acquired more information," she suggested.
"Then let's get going," Galah shouted. "It's best we get moving now before something weird comes our way."
The sisters noticed that a black 'snow' was falling from the sky, tainting their hulls temporarily. Whatever they had been made with didn't let the black substances cling to them for long. Galah, on the other hand, was much different. His chassis was turning almost completely black in the 'snow', although he seemed to be completely oblivious to this fact. Even though it would take a bit of floating to reach them, Celestia could already see the main crops. In the little bit of lukewarm wind present, she could see some golden tint beneath the patches of black from the sky.
She stopped near them and ripped out a chunk to better analyze it. The insides were filled with thick, black veins, and a transparent syrup was oozing out of it. Without an ability to analyze the components, Celestia had no way of knowing what it was.
"What a bizarre plant," Galah said. "I've never seen the like where we came from." He looked to the sky then towards the mountains. "Are they just made to grow in this region?" he wondered aloud.
"It seems to hold a syrup substance within it," Celestia noted. "It's possible that it could used as a treat by the makers?"
"Or an important ingredient for other substances," Luna said.
"Uh huh..." the prototype responded apathetically. "What else is there?!" he shouted.
"That sounds completely off from what we have now!" Twilight shouted. She started pacing around the room, thinking. "I don't understand. What is that black stuff?" she asked the princesses.
"Recall that I mentioned waste of the blue energy," Celestia said.
Twilight nodded. "Of course." She paused a moment, a sense of shock gradually overtaking her face. "Are you saying that--"
"Yes," Luna interjected. "That is what happens with the waste of the black energy."
The lavender alicorn shook her head in disgust. "Then, obviously the blue energy was superior!" she proclaimed with a smile. The sisters laughed in response. Twilight's gaze darted between the two of them. "What? What's so funny?" she asked.
"Twilight, just because the city we were in looked so 'great' didn't mean it wasn't being affected by the blue energy," Celestia said.
"Well, of course! I know that." Twilight took a deep breath. "But that doesn't mean it was affected in a bad way."
"Not that we told you," Celestia said. She turned away from Twilight and a hand to her muzzle. "There's many things in our lives before Equestria that we remember that we haven't told you about." She leaned in uncomfortably close to her former student's face. "Certainly you know that Equestria isn't a golden seat of purity. There are dirty specks here and there that nothing can be done about."
Twilight shook her head. "You can't say that, princess! You've done a great job!"
"And yet here we stand," Luna said. She looked down. "Or float, in this case. There isn't much that can be done about it. A massive population is hard to keep watch over. Nothing is perfect regardless of how it looks," the lunar princess lamented.
Disheartened, Twilight looked down to the ground. The princesses waited for a while for Twilight to be receptive to the rest of their tale, something that seemed to cause more distress to Twilight as time went on. This didn't go unnoticed.
The moment Galah touched the stalks that far surpassed the height of the trio by a foot, a massive creature, easily as big as one of the vehicles from the city, flew overhead and towards the forest. Its body was large and it possessed six blade-like limbs and a body pocked with holes. It broke a few trees when it landed, throwing black dust and leaves everywhere. Angry, it scampered to its clawed limbs and lunged forward, hissing at whatever had thrown it. Its face was insect-like, but it was covered in a random number of variously-shaped eyes. Its mouth was comprised of two mandible, both covered in sharp teeth, and several crooked and misshapen horns covered its forehead.
A bright light erupted from above the crops and illuminated the creature, causing it to flinch and cover its face with a leg. A light screeching noise accompanied by what Luna believed to be explosive noises filled her auditory sensors. The noise become louder as it 'revved up', until eventually the creature started to back away. Thumping noises started to come at the same volume as the explosive sounds and the light bobbed up and down, scaring the creature even further. It retracted away, somehow shrinking and compressing in size. Its bladed limbs split apart, giving it 'toes' that it used to quickly scamper away into the forest as fast as it could.
The source of all the noise and light came into view before the trio, its light still shining into the forest. Its body was immense, the size easily reaching that of the machines Luna had seen at the port. It was built similarly to the giant robot of the technician's, but its body displayed hollow areas where many pistons and frames were exposed to the air. They hissed steam and black energy. On their backs were two tremendous exhausts that could devour the sisters, and then some. They were shaking and burning red and orange. Black smoke billowed out of their backs, angrily toppling its own layers. The black behemoth twisted around to return to wherever it came from when it spotted the trio.
Luna could better see it now. A gigantic, cubic torso covered in different layers of metallic plating, each sporting a different amount of 'black'. Its hands possessed three digits each, and its legs were, quite possible, just as thick as the technician's gigantic construct. The blue machine felt a strange discomfort when she gaze upon it and the face it had. Angry, glowing orange eyes behind an armored helmet of sorts. Round and tainted by the black snow from above. The white robot put a hand on Luna's shoulder, somehow causing her systems to calm down.
"What're these bots doin' here? Di'n't ask fer no help!" it bellowed angrily. The head twisted left and right, observing the three. "Y'all're pretty small ta be robots, ain't ya?" The light beneath its neck shone brightly once more, illuminating the three, and the machine's systems roared loudly in anger. "Hey, y'all ain't from here. Y'all're from the blue!" it bellowed with pure rage and hatred. "Think yer better'n us, huh?" It raised a tremendously heavy arm into the air with a clenched fist. "Reckon' a might be o' crushin'd serve you a bit of humility!"
The massive construct threw its arm down, crashing into the ground and throwing up black dust everywhere. Luna and Celestia calmly floated to the sides while Galah watched its movements very closely.
"Ain't scared, are ya?" the machine shouted angrily at the prototype.
It swung its arm across, crashing into Galah who had its arms raised up. He found himself flung across the field and into the distance.
"Didn't hear no crunch or crack." The monster grunted as its engines belched black energy into the sky. "Still, Ah still gots you two ta learn a lesson to!"
She swung at Celestia who rose in the air, out of reach. The giant stared at her momentarily before shining its light onto Luna and seeing the same result occur. It kept trying to reach the two, failing every time.
"Consarn'd stupid machines! Git down from there! Robots ain't s'posed to fly! Ain't natural!"
"Robots are not 'natural'," Celestia chided. "While most of the material we are comprised of comes from the ground, we are still constructs. We were not born."
The giant stopped, and its engines sputtered before roaring once more. "That's not what I meant ya gol dern...Yer just makin' fun of me! Think yer better'n me!"
"My design is much more efficient than yours," the white machine said. "So is hers," she said as she pointed to her sister.
Luna waved 'hello', angering the giant. Its torso flowed a bright orange as its systems went into overdrive. "Maybe ah should put a little more sweat on mah 'brow, then!" It turned around and started rummaging through the hill behind it. " 'Ere we go!" It turned around with two giant boulders in its hands. "This should git you good!" she shouted enthusiastically. "Can't wait ta squish some flyin' geese!"
It pulled one arm back, winding up for a throw, and jettisoned it at Celestia. It whistled past the machine, narrowly missing when she dodged downwards. The other went towards Luna who rolled to the side, also narrowly avoiding the boulder, although it did still cause sparks when it touched her right arm.
"Would you stop movin' around! S'getting' even more anno--"
The exhausts on the back of the machine puttered out, and the robot teetered over. Its legs bent into a crouch, preventing the whole thing from just toppling over.
"It shut down," Luna said. She approached it and poked the orange hull with her ring hand. "I believe it is out of energy."
Celestia looked it up and down. "Should we find a source of energy to power it with? The maker within could be trapped."
Luna shook her head. "Would be more prudent to find a maker and have them solve this issue."
The two machines floated backwards when a loud click came from the machine, followed by a copious expelling of steam and gas. A large hatch raised from the center of the torso, exposing the armored center, and the one within.
"Stupid blue machines 'n their blue energy. Last too long! S'not fair!" the voice complained. It had a lighter, somewhat feminine tone.
Luna approached the open hatch and extended an arm. "Do you need assistance?" she asked.
Her arm was slapped away by something metallic. A prosthetic, Luna thought. Instead, she was met with an unexpected occupant: Another robot.
"Ah ain't need no blue's gol 'dern 'assistance'," she mocked. The machine jumped and landed hard on the ground, black energy rushing out of her legs. "Get it done with, then. Destroy me. Ah don't care no more."
It was a much bulkier machine than the sisters. It was at least the size of the one female maker the two had met in the alleyway. Her body was painted a bright orange with yellow on her fingers, joints, and cheeks. Her whole body was a bulky mess of thick metal plating and black energy. Each hand had five fingers each, all built upon a semi-squarish simulacrum of a hand. Her thick legs ensured a stable balance in most situations, but her knees were inverted. Her face possessed a slight, squarish protrusion in which a fake line of white metal had been installed. The edges were crudely cut, leaving several holes of various sizes from which a dull orange glow seeped. Her eyes were the same. They depended on the motor within her burning bright to showcase bright, orange eyes filled anger and flickering hatred.
Her head was adorned with a vertically placed, strange, bicorne-esque 'hat' shape made from pure metal. How it was able to move about with such an unpolished and jagged lump of metal was a mystery to the sisters.
"Well? Figure that even a farmin' robot'd be too much to leave by."
"This...sounds like Applejack," Twilight mused suspiciously.
"She does, doesn't she?" Celestia realized. She looked to her sister. "You think there's something in there that we're missing?" Luna shrugged. "I wonder if the blue energy didn't do something else to our friends, or if it's just mere coincidence. Many ponies over time share the same traits and personalities, and the Apple family is no stranger to this."
"They are a stereotype of farmer ponies, after all," Luna teased.
Twilight looked 'shocked'. "Well, that's not very nice, Princess Luna. I thought that you would have more tact for a pony in your esteemed position."
Luna huffed in response. "Not all of us have time to peruse the local populace for smarmy jokes, Twilight."
Twilight burst in to laughter, as did Celestia. "Peruse!" the solar princess repeated.
"Still, I recall meeting quite a few Apples before...that, and quite a few of them shared several personality traits with our old friend." She tapped her chin. "This whole story time is starting to rouse questions that my sister and I never bothered to think about because we were too busy reminiscing our past and the fun we had when we became awake."
"We don't intend to terminate you," Luna said. She stretched her arm out once again. "We were intending to find robots like you, who share a similar trait of 'awareness'," she explained.
The machine displayed suspicion and mistrust. She back away, and metal shutters closed in behind her eyes, creating various different ocular representations.
"What's you talkin' 'bout?" she asked. "Y'all were sent by the blue to get rid of us here in the black."
"I have a hard time believing such an outcome when ships and makers are still sent here to the black," Celestia said. She floated close-by. "You display similar traits to both us and Galah."
There was a pause before the large robot responded. "Who?"
"The machine you tossed away in this...other machine?" She glitched.
The large machine laughed. "He's gone. Ain't no two, three, 'er five ways 'bout it. 'E's gone!"
"He's coming back," Luna said from above. She pointed into the distance.
"What?! That's impossible! That was with mah full body!" the machine shouted in disbelief. She ran forward to get a better look.
Galah was running through the grass, eventually arriving back in front of a new trio. "Wow!" he shouted. "That was amazing!" He almost immediately noticed the new machine in the group and rushed to her. "Where did you come from?" he asked.
The new machine was at a loss for words. She saw the deep dents in the strange, bulky arms of the machine she thought she had destroyed and was met with even more confusion. Those of the blue weren't like this. They weren't sturdy at all. Their robots weren't sturdy at all! At least, that's what she had been told the whole time. Was there something she was missing. Her processes were paused when she heard a bad noise coming from her 'full' body. Luna was peering into the cabin and fumbling about with the entrails.
"Hey! You stay outta there!" she shouted angrily. She rushed over and pulled Luna out by her legs. "That's mine! Don't you touch it ever!" She looked at it and wiped several pieces of grass stuck to her chassis after Galah approached her. "Just gotta get mahself fueled up 'n ah'll be squishin' ya right fer!" she stated with a prompt nod.
"What is this?" Luna asked. "There ware no seats or controls with which to control this construct."
"That's mah body," the machine growled.
"Elaborate."
The new machine slammed her chest several times with both hands. "That's me," she specified. "Ah'm the core. Easier ta transport 'n fuel up then lettin' mah real self get ta anyplace ah need ta be at."
"And you can be transferred to a new body if this one fails and becomes irreparable," Celestia said.
"Guess you use plugs 'n such to become connected with it," Galah pondered. The new machine agreed. He remained in silence for several minutes while the sisters stared at the new machine silently, unnerving her more and more with each passing second. "This is a very old model," he said. "They were phased out decades ago. Almost two centuries. Power consumption and management was solved already, and then those problems were improved upon. "He looked to the new machine. "Why are you still in service?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't ah be? You jerks from the blue dun kept all yer blue from us. We can't do nothin' without it, so we use the black." Her arms drooped and she looked to the sky, her voice taking a dour tone. "Ah've been told by mah caretakers that all the lands in this world were bright 'n vibrant. They were soothin', 'n creatures of all shapes 'n colors were prancin' about." She frowned. "Although ah don't remember none of that, 'n ah figure this land here is right vibrant and filled with 'nough critters as it is." The orange machine shrugged. "Can't rightly figure what the problem is. S'a good life fer me, 'n mah friend doesn't mind it none either, though she does get in over her head a lot with the critters."
"I am perplexed," Celestia butted in. "Were you not threatening us earlier? Why do you confide in us?"
The orange machine snorted. "Y'all'd've destroyed me already. Figured ya need me fer somethin' if yer makers haven't destroyed me yet, although how you are behaving like this without them noticing is a mystery."
"They don't know," Luna said. "We came here of our own volition. Nothing special was requested of us by our makers."
The orange machine narrowed her gaze. "So ya say, but ah ain't gonna trust y'all yet. Ain't never even seen things like you two, but ah have seen you afore," she gestured to Galah.
"I'm delighted that someone even still knows of me in the lands of the black energy." He bounced in place. "How exciting! A celebrity in a new land I've never explored before."
The machine's arm drooped. "Wh-what in material sublimation? Y'ain't a celebrity!"
"Sue sounds like it," Galah said smugly.
The orange machine clenched her fists angrily, and the fire within her burned brightly for a moment until Luna poked her shoulder. "What is your designation?" she asked.
"Mah what?" The machine rose back up to her full height, towering over everyone. "Ya mean my name?"
Luna nodded. "Mine is Luna." She pointed to the white machine. "My sister's name is Celestia." She pointed to the prototype whilst ignoring the orange robot mumbling 'sister' under her non-existent breathe. "And this is Galah. He is the one who led us here."
"I concluded that jumping out of the aircraft would be the optimal solution to getting to where we wanted to be," he stated proudly.
The orange robot stared at him in disbelief. "Ya what?! Of all the gol' durn stupid things ta--"
"I would have preferred that we land in a city and go from there. The concentration of machines there is higher than in a countryside or rural environment," Celestia complained.
"Yes, but we found her, didn't we," Galah said. He raised his arms into the air, stretching his long, spindly fingers.
The orange robot was ready to heave, but she didn't have the ability to do so. "Fine. Mah name Ia Rahllup, on account of the banged pieces of metal mah caretakers put on mah full body." She looked to it and crossed her arms. "Could've been creative, but nooooo." She readjusted her head and shook it. "If'n yer lookin' fer machines lak me, I figure y'all should come to mah farm, but ah warn ya." She glared at the three as the flames within her intensified. "On it, y'all're in mah territory. The other may be lahk me, but we're dozens of bots there. Even you three wouldn't be able to escape if ya tried somethin' funny ta mah caretakers. Got it?"
The three nodded in response. How convenient that they found two Galah thought. For a moment he thought he had almost done something incredibly stupid.
"Y'all 're gon' go through the fields now. Best ya keep up with me or you'll get lost," Rahllup said.
Luna stared at the partly golden stalks. "Are you certain this is a wise idea? Your crops will be damaged."
The orange machine waved at Luna's complaint and huffed at the notion. "Them crops is sturdy, 'n they get smushed before bein' collected anyhow." She put her hands on her hips. "Reckon this just makes mah job easier."
"Then let's get going!" Galah said.
He strained himself against Rahllup's hand pushing against his chest, but it didn't stop him very well. She realized this and used both arms to hold him back, straining her systems.
"What kinda bots 're you blues even makin' over there?" the orange machine grunted.
"He is a prototype," Celestia explained. "His components and systems are not up to the standard of regular machinery."
"Unfortunately, she's right," Galah explained as he tried to push against the large robot's arms. "I was never designed to be functioning for a long time or even doing anything special." He didn't take his eyes off the crops. He and Rahllup were starting to create divets in the ground.
"Kinda makes sense, but y'all need to follow me," she specified. "Ah just told you that."
The prototype stopped, causing the orange machine to almost faceplant into him. "You did? I didn't register it." He walked back to the sisters. "Okay, let's follow."
Rahllup looked at the two sisters with a completely befuddled expression. The only response was a shrug from Celestia. The orange machine shook her head and walked through the crops, flattening everything before her. After several minutes of walking, the group happened upon a large assembly of different buildings with rounded roofs from which the 'snow' rolled off of. Several smaller robots that Rahllup with more human shapes were walking around the premises, carrying crates, cartons, barrels, and bags of foodstuffs everywhere. Luna couldn't see what they were bringing it all to, but she could see a bunch of broken down machinery and parts of others strewn about. All of the robots emitted the same orange light that Rahllup produced, and Celestia commented on their age.
"Two hundred generations old," the white machine said.
Luna slowly turned to her. "Such machinery should no longer be functional in the current time period," she said.
"Yet they walk around the premises, toiling away." Celestia hummed. "They are either still produced in this area or are yet another iteration of the robots that function on black energy."
"Only two match with my database," Luna said. "How many different iterations have those of the black been using?"
"Plenty," Rahllup said. "The caretakers'll still try tah make new machines when they can. I and the other like me are like that. Entirely new machines built in great times of need." She looked at Luna from the corner of her 'eye'. "Though we're still based off of preexistin' models."
"Such an act is forbidden in the lands of the blue," Luna explained. "Why do you not enforce such rules?" she asked.
The orange machine looked at her fully and laughed. "Stay here 'n ah'll get mah caretakers. They'll decide on what ta do with ya." She slammed a part of her neck, causing black ash to flow out from under her chest plating. "Reckon y'all best be put ta work if'n yer fixin' on findin' us. Y'all invaded, after all."
She marched towards the large house in the distance. It had been made with reinforced wood and possessed a small porch and overhead roof for it. There were several windows on all three floors from which a pale yellow light shone through. Didn't take long for the three to hear something, and against Rahllup's orders, they moved in front of the house, watching the wooden doorway intently. Finally, it opened with a loud creak.
"I'll have to oil up the door again," a deep female voice complained. "I hate it when it snows. Always creaks the joints of these stupid doors." The floorboards creaked as a large foot stepped upon them. "Now who are these new robots you wanted to show me?" she asked.
A giant arm passed just below the top of the doorway and pointed at the trio. The one who stepped out, the 'caretaker' as Rahllup put it, was a rather large woman. She was likely strengthened from her toil it her farm, but Luna felt something was...off. This was a maker, but rather than being wrapped in blue energy and it flowing out of her in a calm stream, her bulky body was wrapped in black. It was billowing angrily off of her, though she didn't seem to reflect the same anger the black energy had.
"They're quite small," she said to Rahllup. "And you just found them here?"
The giant ducked under the door frame and stood next to the large caretaker. "They're bots from the blue. Consarn'd idiots jumped out of a craft to land here!" the orange machine yelled angrily.
"What kind of stupid action is that? That doesn't mesh with anything robots are programmed to do!" Her anger subsided briefly. "You know, apart from you and..." she mumbled at Rahllup.
Luna floated forward, stunning the caretaker. "We were looking for other machines like us. I felt there were some in the black and wanted to see for myself," she explained.
She was eyed up and down by the bulky women. "Well I'll be. I thought you were just standing. You float." She scoffed. "Reckon you don't have much time left to run on."
"I still have ninety-two percent of power left," Luna said.
"I have ninety-two point eight," Celestia answered.
The caretaker's eyes bulged. "But you jumped out of a plane," she said in disbelief. She wanted to yell but her voice only came out as a quiet hush. "You flew here, judging by your floating. How is that possible?" She looked to Galah. "And what about you? What, are you at one hundred and ten percent?!"
"I'm at ninety eight. I didn't do much since getting recharged," he said with a shrug.
"We did everything," Celestia complained.
The caretaker grabbed the bridge if her nose and turned to Rahllup. "And what exactly is it that they want again? Find others like them? What does that mean. There's no blue energy here. If they dry out they're stuck."
"They mean robots like us," the orange machine specified. "They aren't following programs and command lines anymore."
The caretaker stared at the orange machine in shock then slowly turned to face the trio before her. "That's...shocking. I thought you two were unique."
"So did I," Rahllup sighed.
"And what's your gain in all of this?" she asked. She pointed to the three. "What is it you hope to do with finding other machines like you? Hm? What are you going to do afterwards?"
Luna stared at her while Celestia and Galah looked to her. She couldn't come up with an answer. Nothing was going through her circuitry. The invisible directive was silent. For the first time ever, she didn't know of an answer nor could she compute a possible workaround.
"I don't know," she answered. "I was...just looking for others."
The caretaker scrutinized at her silently then spat on the ground. "Yeah, that sounds just like Rahllup." She threw an arm in the air. "Fine. Go look for the other one. She should be in the hilly space over next to the barn. There's some predators again. She's taking careof them," the caretaker groaned.
The orange machine did the same and dropped her arms to her side. "Ah keep tellin' her to get rid of 'em. She simply has ta get rid of 'em."
Luna floated next to the giant women, a question burning through her circuitry. "Why do you speak in such a manner yet Rahllup speaks in such an outlandish manner?" she asked. The orange machine shouted that her speech mannerisms weren't outlandish in the distance.
The caretaker shrugged. "Figured I would give them strange accents if I could. Livens up the place, now get going before I'm likely to something nasty involving something from the blue," she threatened.
"Thank you for the answer."
The trio joined up with Rahllup who had already crossed quite some distance. Eventually, they went over another hill to see another gigantic beast of a machine holding several things in its arms.
"Consarn it!" Rahllup cursed. "Biddledee! Ya crush 'em and throw 'em back into the forest! Y'ain't supposed ta hug 'em!"
A booming voice, much like the on of Rahllup in her 'true' body echoed off the hills. "But they just need a hug and then they'll go away!"
"I told you that you need to crush 'em in a hug to make them go away! They're predators! Unless ya kill 'em or find a way to feed and domesticate them, they'll never go away! Nip 'em at the roots."
The machine creaked when it looked back to the struggling creatures in its arm then back to the group still a ways away.
"Her voice is quite powerful," Galah whispered to Celestia. "I'm gonna go see them up close."
"But I don't want to!"
"Why not?! You were doing it just fine years ago!" Rahllup complained.
Galah had already snuck off into the distance under everyone's proverbial noses. Even Luna hadn't noticed since she was too fixated on the creatures that Biddledee was holding. It went on for quite some time while the giant constantly readjusted herself to prevent the creatures from falling out and escaping.
"Wh-Yer clingin' onta them!" Rahllup called out.
"Am not!"
"If ah have ta get over there-!" the orange machine threatened.
An immense amount of smoke billowed out from the exhausts of the giant's back in response. "Fine! I'll throw them back into the woods!"
"No, yer s'posed ta cr--BIDDY!"
The giant twisted its torso and pulled its arms back, then it flung to the right and threw the creatures into the air, far far away. "There. They're far away now!"
Rahllup's anger subsided and she accepted the event reluctantly. "Well, that's one way to kill 'em, but ah don't fancy long 'bouts of torment."
"She doesn't seem to have done it on purpose," Celestia noticed.
The orange machine shrugged. "Don't matter none ta me. They're dead now." She shook her head as she started moving forward. "Decades old and she still behaves the same way. At least it comes in handy at times."
"Galah is standing next to her," Celestia noted casually.
"What?!" Rahllup screamed.
Galah was standing next to the large feet of the giant machine. "Hello!" he greeted.
The machine looked down at him then twisted itself around. "Who are you?" it asked.
"My name is Galah. I'm a prototype!" he announced enthusiastically.
"Oh!" Biddledee yeeped. "I didn't know we had new machines coming in."
Galah chuckled and pointed to the sky. "Came in from above. Freefall!"
There was a moment of silence. "What?"
"Jumped from a craft." He tapped the legs of the giant. "Can we see what you look like inside?" he asked.
"We?" she repeated. She looked over and saw Rahllup coming along with two other machines. "Oh. 'We'."
"Get out of yer body. Ah gotta talk to ya," the orange machine told Biddydee.
The torso opened up, much like the other system, but out of it came a bizarrely angular robot. Much like Luna and Celestia, it shared a design that no other machine seemed to replicate. It was still, however, as large as Rahllup. Its 'hands' ended at sharp points that opened up into three thick, powerful fingers. Her legs were the same, although they seemed to alternate from thorns burrowing into the ground and flat 'toes'. Her head was also very triangular. Two eyes made of several white-yellow lights combined together to create a simulacrum of a single light behind a glass circle adorned her face. Her 'muzzle' opened up to reveal the same bizarre white plates of metal that Rahllup had, but unlike her, Biddydee's lower jaw slowly lowered before she began to talk. It looked inefficient to the sisters. Atop her head was a long glop of foam metal that jutted in front of her into large, upward curls. It dripped down the back of her head, creating an impression of long 'hair', but the globs had solidified on her chassis and shoulders. She was colored white and orange in solid colors on each facing of her triangular body.
She turned to Galah after raising a finger to Rahllup. "I am also something of a prototype, although my model came into production a bit before being cancelled for price costs."
"Ah told you to stop coddlin' the animals!" the orange machine chastized.
Biddy crossed her arms. "And I told you I don't like hurting animals. I like them. They're interesting."
Twilight glared at the sisters. "Just a coincidence, huh?"
"Yes. It's a coincidence, as we've already told you," Luna said. "I'm standing by my word on that front, Twilight."
The lavender alicorn stared Luna straight in the eyes and shook her head. "You honestly believe I can consider that a coincidence?!" she shouted as she pointed to the image. "I'm not angry at you. It's just that that sort of thing goes beyond mere coincidences!"
"We know, Twilight," Celestia said. "Unfortunately, after millions of years, it's likely to happen many times over that similar people with similar personalities and tastes pop up all around the world. We've told you this already, I believe."
Twilight tilted to the side. "Still, personality and liking something are two things, but their appearances as well?"
Luna looked to the image projected against the cave wall. "To be honest, Biddledee isn't exactly like anyone you know."
Twilight gave the moon princess a look of disapproval. "She looks like a giant, triangular Fluttershy. I mean." She motioned about, trying to find the right words. "Sure, she's a bit more confident than Fluttershy, but--"
"Yes, Twilight. Just a 'little," Celestia said as she gestured a 'tiny bit' with her ring hand.
Twilight scrunched her lower lip. "Yes, well, that machine is almost one hundred percent Fluttershy to the 's'."
Luna started mumbling to herself and counting her fingers.
"What do you expect us to do, Twilight," Celestia asked. She floated straight in front of the mare. "You think we have all the answers to everything that happened in between." She threw her arms in the air and started floating around the cave. "Oh, maybe we had something to do with it while we were offline and didn't function on magic at all! Oh, maybe we did something afterwards and genetically manipulated pony pairings to create offspring that resembled our friends for thousands of years until it got just right."
"Sister," Luna sighed. "Enough with the antagonizing sarcasm. You know you're terrible at that." She put a hand to her chest. "That's my thing, you powdered donut."
"So what? I really am supposed to believe that it's just a coincidence?" Twilight asked angrily.
"Unfortunately, we don't know any more than you. We just noticed some odd similarities most recently, and we're unsure what that means," Celestia explained wearily.
"Did you run out of energy again?" Biddledee asked Rahllup.
The orange machine turned away and crossed her arms. "Maybe. Ah ran out 'cause ah was working."
"You mean you were having a fight with one of the creatures that comes onto the farm rather than chasing it out," she stated matter-of-factly.
Rahllup tapped her arm with a finger several times before screaming. "Yes! Fine! It's true! Ah got carried away. So what?" She looked at the gigantic machine. "Ah bet yer almost runnin' out of fuel too."
Biddledee put her arms behind her back and stood up on her 'toes' multiple times. "Still got forty-seven percent of fuel in there," she stated mockingly.
"If ah had hair ah'd be tearin' it out."
The triangular machine opened its mouth and stuck out a long, ping, flat tape and wagged it at Rahllup. Galah was the one to be perplexed this time.
"A tongue?" he asked. Biddydee nodded. "What for? You're a robot. You do not have taste sensors."
"She uses it ta detect any toxins in the air," the orange machine explained. The trio looked around and pointed at two different things in response. "This ain't toxins," she spoke through her nonexistent grit teeth. "This is how the world's 's'posed ta be! Ain't never seen nothin' different!"
"The blue is not like this," Luna said.
"Yeah, 'n ah don't believe ya fer a second." She snorted. "Just blue propaganda."
"What is propaganda?" Luna wondered.
Biddydee popped in front of her and shook her arm, causing the machine to be flung up and down. "Not important! I'm Biddydee, or Biddledee."
"I am Luna," the blue machine answered calmly.
"I am her sister, Celestia," the white machine added.
The two large robots stared at the two sisters in utter perplexion.
"Robots can't be siblings," Rahllup said. She chuckled nervously. "That's not how the building process works."
"We have come to consider each other sisters," Celestia explained. She hesitated then put a hand on Luna's shoulder as the machine readjusted itself. "She has helped me in many, many ways."
"Right..." Biddydee stood in place and repeated retracted then extended her fingers. "So, what brings you here?"
"They're spahs!" the orange machine shouted angrily. The triangular robot stared at her companion with distant 'eyes' and an open mouth. "What?"
"Those of the blue coming here to spy on us?" Biddydee clarified sarcastically.
"Obviously! They said they're here ta find bots like 'em, but ah ain't fallin' fer it!"
"Yeah. Okay." Her deadpan expression turned into false terror. "Oh no! They'll probably steal the secrets to our farm equipment. Or, or maybe they'll steal how we make roof shingles." She put her fingers in her open mouth. "Oh no. They might steal the seeds to...to our crops!"
"Gna gna gna 'n gna gna gna!" the orange machine answered.
"So!" Galah clapped his furled fingers. "What are we doing today? Exploring a city?"
The two large robots laughed together.
"Nah. Y'all're coming back to the home 'n yer gonna help us fer bein' blues," Rahllup said nonchalantly.
She was struck upside the head by Biddydee. "Stop that. These three are obviously not here to cause trouble, otherwise they would've already cause it."
"Ya damaged mah head," the orange robot complained.
The triangular robot glared at her companion then hunched over to get a better look at the trio. "Well, I'm Biddydee." She gestured to the orange machine with a head inclination. "Rahllup there likes to call me 'Biddy'."
"What model of machine are you?" Luna asked. "You are not within my database."
The triangular robot shrugged. "I don't really know. My model got scratched off my chassis. I just know I was supposed to be the next production line model for black energy robots but was canceled." She pondered. "Not many of me were made before production stopped."
"Why did they stop?" Celestia asked. "Your consumption-per-action ratio is far superior to the tattered one," she noted.
The orange machine complained, but Biddydee ignored her. "Not sure. It just stopped, then the caretakers started taking all of us that were left behind and started putting us back together."
"That ain't entirely true," Rahllup interjected. "Ignorin' yer rude comment, there's companies that still produce bots, but they're never new versions. Said there was no point in tryin' anymore on account that the blues told 'em ta stop." She snorted. "That's rich. Keep us from improvin' ourselves and gettin' better lives."
"If they did that you would be deactivated and likely scrapped," Luna said. She carefully eyed the black energy billowing from the two machines.
"Wadda ya mean?" the orange robot asked. "Explain that fer me."
"You function on the black. Once the blue comes into play then there's no reason for you to still remain functioning. You are inefficient and polluting."
Rahllup looked down and 'rolled' her eyes. "That's true, but ah worked 'ere ta make everythin' easier fer ma caretakers. Can't quite let 'em suffer when they helped build me back tagether." She reached over and squeezed Biddydee against her. "And they even fixed up our full bodies. Ain't no easy feat considerin' how they were built 'n how they function. Reckon the 'pa of the family might know a thing 're two 'bout machinery that he ain't want ta share." Rahllup nodded in agreement before suddenly diving down and grabbing her companion's foot. "What're ya doing' ya cray-oomph!"
"You almost stepped on them!" the triangular machine growled.
She was covering two tiny black creatures skittering through the grass. They looked at her then burrowed into the dirt as fast as they could. Their chitinous hides crunched almost inaudibly with every muscle contraction.
The orange machine angrily struggled to get back onto her feet. "Of all the confounded--"
"They clean and refurbish the soil!" Biddydee blurted out as quickly as she could.
Rahllup's engine glowed a much brighter orange than before she gradually lowered her fist and relaxed. "Fine. That works out."
"You don't seem too keen on hurting everything," Galah noted when he talked to Biddydee.
"I don't like hurting things." She stood back up and wiped the dirt off her legs. "They're not hurting anyone, and they actively help, too."
"Those giant bug things actively hunt the livestock of the farm," the orange machine complained.
"Yes, but you don't want to kill them, do you?" Rahllup said. Her tone took on an upwards inflection. "Huh? Don't want to hurt what you life to fight, huh? If you killed them all and burned the nest, what else would there be left to do?"
"Bah!"
"Another question," Luna interjected?
"What now?!" the orange machine complained.
"Why are your makers so large in build? Is it because of the physical labor they undertake?" she asked.
The two large robots mumbled to each other, confused about the question.
"Whadda ya mean?" Rahllup asked.
"Your makers--"
"Caretakers," Biddydee corrected.
"...Caretakers, are large in build. Cross-referencing the images of your caretaker with the technicians we met in the city, I believe the two were the same," Luna said.
"Lemme get this straight," Rahllup started. "Y'all found caretakers in yer city.
"Yes."
She looked to Biddy with a 'raised eyebrow'. "And they were just hidin' in plain sight?"
"Yes," Celestia interjected. "They were hiding in an alleyway with a plethora of other deactivated machines on the sides." She heard the two robots groan but continued. "They were very large for makers. We were not expecting such a size but believed it to be from their labor of lifting heavy parts and deactivated robots."
The two grumbled and paced around.
"They weren't technicians and they weren't there ta fix nothin'." Rahllup spoke with a quieted and tired tone. "Were they carryin' anythin' odd?"
"A box-like tool. She mentioned that it was to make sure we weren't shorting out or had a leak."
Biddydee shook her head. "Of course. What happened to them."
"They ceased function." Luna said.
"Wh, did you--'
Luna tapped her chest slowly. "The technician tried to access my power core with her tool without following proper procedure and was terminated by the feedback. Her colleague suffered the same fate."
"He was in a yoga position," Celestia blurted.
"I lost about one percent power from the procedure. Their remains were reported."
The two slowly took a very large step back.
"Let's change the subject," Rahllup suggested. "What about yer 'makers' is different from our caretakers?" she asked.
"Your caretakers are bulky, large, and quite tall," Celestia explained. "They do not match the size of our makers. The majority of which are thin and disheveled." Rahllup laughed at the comment. "I have not been able to ascertain as to why there are such physical differences between the two. Both are from the same species and both have the same dna." She looked around, watching the snow fall. "Is it caused by the energy?"
"What, is your pure and perfect blue energy turning you all into sticks?" She got into Celestia's face, exerting heat.
Celestia's 'eyes' jittered left and right as she looked into the orange machine's. She raised a ring hand, then poked Rahllup's eye. "You have a fracture in this location. I recommend replacing with a temperature-resistant compound."
"I give up. I can't understand them," the robot lamented.
"Are all 'caretakers' like that? Or is it from hard labor that they become that way?"
Biddydee shrugged. "They've always been like that as far as we know. When the elder 'pa of the family repaired us, he was large. When we were passed to his younger family, they were large as well. The infants followed the same trait."
"Those in the city are that way too, even if they don't do much strugglin'," the orange machine snorted. "Ah figure there might be somethin' else ta this if'n yer that intent on understandin'."
If they were from the black, Luna thought, then why were the technicians blue?
Rahllup gestured to Biddydee. "Mah body's in the fields over there somewhere," she vaguely gestured. "Reckon ya should be able ta bring it back afterwards."
Biddydee saluted the giant and returned inside the large robot. Its engines roared with power as the torso locked down and the machine rose up. It stomped away into the distance with the four close behind.
"This place is fantastic!" Galah blurted out suddenly. "The creatures look just as horrific as the tiny ones in the city!" he laughed.
"What?!" Rahllup shouted. She felt quite insulted. "Our animals here ain't horrific! They're-!" She stammered to find a way to argue aginst what the prototype had said but failed to find any words. "They're better 'n the blue, at least!"
Galah gave a smug laugh. "Couldn't find a rebuttal, eh?"
The orange robot huffed. "Ain't no rebuttal needed."
"And yet both places we live in are filled with monstrous but oh-so fascinating creatures," he mused. "Ours are just smaller."
"Save the burrowing creature on the slopes leading to the port," Celestia corrected.
"There were burrowing creatures?" Galah stared into the distance. "I have no memories of such an event."
Celestia's eyes glowed a hot white in response to the prototype's response, but he just stared at her silently. His confusion didn't dissipate. Rahllup didn't miss the opportunity for more mockery.
"So not everythin' is paradise over in the blue, hm?" she said.
"No data suggests it is any of the multiple depictions of 'paradise' when cross-referenced with the limited data I have available on maker history." Luna turned to Celestia who shook her head. "I can confirm that it is not paradise."
Rahllup groaned and tdragged her hand across her face, producing a painful screeching that caused several small creatures to scurry away from the group's feet. "It's an expression," she moaned.
They had arrived at the home when Rahllup shrunk away. Biddydee was standing next to an angry two caretakers: The large female from earlier and a bulkier and slightly taller male. The orange machine's full body was slumped on the floor against her comrade's.
"They appear upset," Celestia noted.
Galah had already rushed towards the two caretakers and shook their hands wildly, causing them to shake in place.
"Greetings, makers!" he yelled. "I am Galah, and I am more than happy to meet makers from a place other than where I'm from."
"What is with this thing?!" the male shouted. "And its fingers are creepy!" he said as he massaged his wrists.
"Rahllup!" the female shouted. "Get this thing away from us!"
Galah scoffed. "I am not a thing," he corrected. "I am a prototype model--"
"I don't care," the female interrupted.
The prototype glared at the two, disconcerting them a bit. "How very rude, but understandable."
The orange machine hurried up. "Yeah?" she said nervously.
The female had her arms crossed and was tapping her arm with a finger. "What is that?" she asked as she pointed to the giant robots.
"My full body," Rahllup answered.
The woman's voice quieted and sounded all the more threatening for it somehow. "That's right, and it's empty." Her voice exploded. "It's empty! We told you to bring them back when they were at twenty percent power!" She clonked the large machine on the muzzle. "The energy to power those things doesn't come cheap!" she bellowed angrily. "How many times have you done this because you keep wanting to fight?" She grabbed the machine and, much to Luna's shock, managed to force it down into a crouch. "You're not a machine of the blue. You're of the black, and that energy doesn't last very long." She noticed the machines at the corner of her eyes. "Speaking of the blue..."
"They came here to find machines like us," Biddydee interrupted before she became angrier.
"They're of the blue?" the male gestured to the three with a finger. The two large machines nodded. "There are no machines like them here," he said. His voice was envenomed. "Tell them to go away. We have no need of them or their precious energy."
Celestia pushed her sister back, stunning her. The blue machine was always the one to take the initiative, yet here Celestia was, moving forward. Luna felt something in her processes. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation.
"We are not here for anything of yours. We came here because we were looking for machines like us." She pointed to the two large machines. "We would like for them to come with us in our bid to find others like them."
"What for?" the man asked.
"I want to have a larger family," the white machine said.
The two caretakers chuckled.
"You can't have a family. You're a robot," the male stated dismissively.
"Yes, but meeting other machines like us might bring something that my processors are incapable of conceiving."
The male eyed her up and down and shook his head. "Fine. Come inside so we can talk more." He shivered. "It's cold outside."
The female groaned. "It's always cold for you. If we were on the sun you would wear a sweater," she complained.
The male laughed as he entered. "That's very true."
It was bright inside, illuminated by the orange lights of a fireplace made of bricks. The walls and floors were covered in polished, tanned wood that creaked slightly in some areas when the caretakers walked about. There were two large couches surrounding a television built into the corner of the walls. It was active and displaying caretakers talking to each other behind a desk. The sisters found the display to be rather uninteresting.
"That is quite the old design," Galah noted. "It can change size and move about the wall." He looked to a stairway next to the living room leading up. "They used to be used to cover the walls. Now it's just mobile projections," he explained to the sisters. "Easier to manage and much less space wasted."
"So what? We don't have your fancy tech," Rahllup said dismissively as she followed the two caretakers to a room in the back.
There were an assortment of wood-carved furniture sitting about. They had been carved with precision lasers and obsidian blades, something a machine would have done. Night stands, a table in front of the couches, portraits against the walls, and strange items and statues hanging next to or on hooks. Each being carved into a local creature, various farming tools, and even vehicles and makers riding atop them.
Three caretakers were sitting on the couches surrounding the corner of the television. Two infants and an elderly male. The infants were older than the ones Luna knew, but they were no less larger despite their ages. Luna's internal database was ringing alerts, telling her they had a medical condition and had to be sent to a hospital or the closest equivalent of centralized medical aid, and yet. Their bodies functioned just slightly above her the median she had in her database. Her systems were starting to clash with each other, with the scans saying the difference were tolerable while the physical observations were anomalous to an extreme. While the infants still hadn't noticed the three newcomers, the old male was staring at them through the corner of his eye. He was hunched over, trying to get a better look at the tv. He was extremely suspicious of the machines until he saw the sisters float next to each other. Very close. His suspicion and anger made way for a look of pleasant surprise.
"Alright, ah gots the cake slices!" the younger male shouted as he passed the small hallway holding two plates with a triangular slice of something white.
The two infants bounced from their seats and continued bouncing eagerly as they held onto the couch's back. The female followed behind her mate while Rahllup pulled up with an extra cake in hand. The infants were overjoyed and immediately started to nibble on the food. The wife passed one of her cakes to her husband and the two dropped next to the eldery male.
"Here ya go, 'pa," Rahllup said with as much of a smile her static face she could make.
"Thank you kindly," he said. "Glad to see your accent is still intact."
Galah and Luna watched Celestia put a finger to the bottom of her "chin' as she stared at the cake slices. She started floating towards the elderly male, prompting Biddydee to rush forward aggressively until Luna caught her with an outstretched arm. She didn't look at the machine but still shook her head. He tried to ignore it at first, but the elderly caretaker couldn't continue and dropped his plate in an exasperated grunt.
"What do you want, machine of the blue?!" he bellowed angrily.
The two infants coughed up their cake and looked around until they caught the eyes of Celestia. They yiped and jumped back and their cakes flew in the air just to be luckily caught by a vigilante Galah. He didn't like the sliminess left behind.
"What is that?" Celestia asked. Luna noticed her voice seemed strained.
"Th-this?" the elderly male asked. He looked to his plate then back to the machine. "I-it's a cake."
"Mmmmm...What kind of cake?"
"Cheese," the female answered warily.
Celestia scratched -or at least attempted to- her chin. "It looks...shiny."
She slowly leaned closer and closer to the slice while the two caretakers slowly leaned further and further away until Luna and Biddydee grabbed Celestia to pull her back and away.
"Don't overwhelm them, sister," Luna berated. "That's rude."
The elderly male shot up. "Sister?!" His eyes brightened up and sparkled. "You're exactly like Rahllup and Biddydee!" He forced himself over to the floating machines despite his family's protests. "Amazing. So those of the blue made some, too."
"Made what?" Luna asked with a tilted head.
"Why, sentient artificial intelligence!" He pointed to Rahllup. "Her ai programming comes from the blue! I was assured of this when I gathered and purchased the parts to remake her. I knew it came from there!" He awwed. "To think that you would develop a family bond."
Celestia stared at Rahllup and shook her head. "Her programming is not of the blue," she corrected.
It took several takes for the caretaker to be able to answer. "What?"
"Every machine has a base understanding of the machines around them. It allows us to detect potential errors in programming and correct them within the blue." She looked to her sister. "Even machines that are not of the same model line still have base programming within them to help correct minor errors of code, but this ability is very limited. We cannot detect major defects, or even slightly important ones. This is just to keep a machine from requiring constant maintenance during its functioning." Her eyes dimmed. "It was to be phased out for a better system." She looked back to the orange machine. "But Rahllup does not have programming of the blue."
The elderly male stepped back. "But then, if they're not of the blue, then they're of the black?" Celestia nodded in response to the question. "But..." He cursed and slammed the ground with his foot. "I thought I had elucidated this mystery! Machines that are sentient!"
The trio of the blue stood tall. "We are not sentient," Luna said. "We are sapient," she corrected.
"Sapient machinery..." The man fell back against the couch arm. "Impossible."
"What's 'sapient' mean?" Biddydee and Rahllup asked together.
"Means that something thinks about itself and the functions of everything around it," the younger male explained. His eyes widened after he realized what he said.
"Ooooh." Rahllup chuckled. "Well, ah do that all the time," she said. "Why'd those stupid bugs gotta stay 'round here when there're better places away from our farm?" She shook her head. "Annoyin'."
The five caretakers stared at her then looked to the tv, distracted by a loud announcement.
"Ugh. The blues are on the tv again," the elder grumbled through a headache.
It showed a maker walking towards a glass pane behind which there were several other makers and tall robots manipulating a giant, pink, squarish crystalline lozenge floating in the air. They seemed to be struggling with keeping it in place. It also seemed to spark a bright pink light at random intervals and intensities.
"This is the new power source that this science institute have developed using our famed blue energy," the maker stated. He looked towards the crystal as a robot outstretched its hand and pulled the item down. "As you can see, it's still in its prototyping stages." He chuckled. "Looks like it won't be easy for the lead researcher. Her job is vital to our evolution as a people, but I wouldn't want to be doing her job," he teased. "Still, if this were to function, it would produce twenty times the amount of energy our current generators can, providing such an excess that we would be able to use our home as a nexus for..." the image started blurring and becoming static.
"What's happening?" one of the infants asked in a panic. Their question reflected that of the presentator on the television.
"The power supply is growing unstable," Galah explained.
The object started to glow brighter and brighter and hummed more and more violently until it let out a blinding burst of light, throwing the tv crew back. The group waited in baited silence until the image came back in several minutes. The camera was righted up and the presentator stared at the pane. He hesitated to touch it, then gradually rubbed his hand over it after determining it wasn't dangerous.
"It's...it's all a crystal, now...How--" He jumped in terror.
"It's alright!" a female voice said from the other side. She only appeared as a shadowy form. "Get medical aid. We still have minor injuries."
A sigh of relief came from the crew. "Well, guess we'll be doing that right away then. It's still good to document progress on all our futures, though. Signing out is the crew o--"
Completely unaware of the recording crew still there, the woman started to mumble quite loudly. "Still better than the last time. They all turned into crystalline statues." A vocal shiver emphasized her thoughts.
The presentator stared at the shadowy shape, mouth agape, then stared at the camera, speechless. The tv went out and replaced everything with 'technical difficulties'. The silence in the room continued until the elder burst out in laughter.
"Pahahaheeheejijiji. Those camera crews always do something stupid like that!"
"You aren't worried about the injuries?" Galah asked.
The elderly caretaker scoffed. "Of course not. They knew what they were getting into, and they wouldn't have shared any of that with us anyways." He crossed his arms. "Don't need it nohow."
The prototype seemed to tense up, and the sisters felt something odd and backed away, leaving him all the room he needed.
"Why do you and the makers despise each other so much?" he asked. "It is incomprehensible that such a thing happens. Even the machine you reactivated shares your views, 'pa," he spat out.
The elderly male stood up, his eyes filled with vitriol. "Wanna know why? I'll tell ya why."
"So the makers were still creating new power sources? You didn't mention this." Twilight scratched her head. "And pink? I thought there was only the black and the blue energies."
"There were," Celestia stated cryptically.
Twilight stared at her. "What? Is there something that happened later on? They cancelled it, I bet," she posited.
The sisters stared at her silently, their faces dark and morose as the light orbs faded out, leaving their bright, unblinking eyes staring down at the former student. The lavender alicorn felt her heart tense in the silence, and she wasn't sure why.
"When the blue energy was discovered, everyone cheered wildly after seeing what it could do and how much power it could produce," Pa said. "But when we asked for it, you never passed it to us. Said that these lands were too polluted and mixing the energies would have grave consequences for the world in the long run!" He growled while his clenched fists trembled. "Who knows what would have happened if you even bothered to share that energy. Instead, we have to use an older energy that is hardly even as efficient, and our lives are all the more difficult!
Galah turned his head to the side. "There is more to your story that you aren't telling," the prototype stated.
The old male huffed. "It's a summary with superficial elements trimmed off."
"My makers told me otherwise." He pointed at the elder. "That those of the black are devious and have tried to steal the blue energy since its inceptions, preferring to try and take as much of it as possible rather than an acceptable amount."
"Because you refuse to share it!" he rebutted.
"At the same time, your mere presence corrupts and pollutes the lands around you thanks to the black invariably tied to your bodies," Galah countered. "It's no wonder that the makers have a deep hatred of you."
The sisters and Biddledee remained silent while the adults and Rahllup were visibly growing angrier.
"We pollute the lands?" the adult male shouted in shock. "What about your blue? It's oh so precious yet you let it destroy our air with that...bizarre trail it leaves behind."
"I've detected no traces of such interactions in this territory," Luna interjected. "I've only detected navigation interference at its most concentrated."
Pa gestured to her. "See? Even you machines are affected by the very thing that powers you!"
Galah crossed his arms. "Because it's not contained or focused. It's just left in the wilderness. The byproduct of the blue is harmless."
The large female scoffed. "It emaciated the people of the blue after they became too dependent on their machines to function. Heard you can't even breathe well over there," she mumbled.
"I was told the same of the lands tainted by the black, but I have no lungs to take in such the air," Galah explained. "Falsifying information...I don't like it."
"And the bickering continued like that for several hours at least," Luna sighed. "No, my place is better. No, mine is better! Yours is icky, pee-u!" she mocked while clenching her muzzle.
"So, what. No one had a plausible reason to hate each other?" Twilight asked.
Celestia sat on an outcrop of stone and rested her head in her 'hands'. "They did, but no one had a proper way to explain their disdain." She looked at Twilight. "Even Luna and I had trouble figuring out what the actual reasons behind their hatred were, and even then, we only vaguely knew what it was about."
Twilight sat down, staring at the princesses with an assertive and doubtful gaze. "So, what is the point of view of makers that makes them hate the black energy and the caretakers that makes them hate the blue but still try and steal it for themselves."
Luna tapped her head. "From what I can gather, those of the black stuck to their own energy productions and ended up left behind when it was discovered that the blue was far more efficient and powerful."
Celestia started thinking hard, digging deep into her old data drives. "We're unsure as to why they weren't given the means of using that energy afterwards, but both sides sort of entered some kind of rivalry."
"And, predictably, the blue came out ahead," Luna added. "Not for lack of trying, though."
"The relationship between the two became envenomed, I think," Celestia pondered. She looked to her sister. "Didn't those of the blue say the black energy was a dangerous and toxic product for everything around it?"
Luna thought hard. "I think there were old documents showing the consequences of it. I just remember that they were considered gruesome."
"So, it was propaganda," Twilight said.
"Yes and no?" Luna said with uncertainty. "It had some truth to it, but..."
"The blue energy caused its own fair share of problems, but it was decidedly more powerful," Celestia thought out loud.
"More power doesn't mean less dangerous," Twilight stated. "It's possible they were hiding the effects."
Celestia shook her head. "The effects of the blue would have still been very pronounced back then."
"So then what happened?"
The sisters shrugged. "Don't know," Luna said. "We were never very invested in that part of history, and because the makers of the blue and those of the black refused to say anything outright, we never learned the truth."
"I though those of the black were called 'caretakers'," Twilight said.
Luna shrugged. "They're both the same thing, to be honest. Only Rahllup and Biddydee ever called them caretakers."
Celestia attempted to flex her non-existent muscles. "One is just more bricc than the other!" she said.
Luna and Twilight both looked at her sideways.
"What does that even mean?" Twilight asked.
The solar princess shrugged and laid back. "Muscular? I just overheard several of the younger ponies mention it constantly in the streets. I thought it sounded funny," she chuckled.
Twilight shook her head. "Going back to the two energies, it sounds like there might be some darker truth that the general public forgot, to me," she posited.
"It's more than possible," the lunar princess agreed. "The technology they had back then were leagues ahead of what exists now." Her body twitched. "And then there was that thing that would always pop up in the sky with its blue lights and the trail of blue energy that always lingered for days." She nodded to herself. "Biddledee had some interesting points of view on the whole debate, though."
The sisters and Biddydee could hear the arguments from outside. They didn't want to deal with the commotion, although the sisters were still somewhat concerned for Galah's well-being. The triangular machine preferred to invite the two to one of the many farm animals that they owned. They arrived at a very tall, electrified cage made with sturdy and thick metal beams. They towered over the sisters, reminding them of the scrapyard. Hiding behind it were several large, bipedal creatures with retracted arms ending in long and sharp claws. Their bodies were covered in thick plates that covered the top of their heads but not their mouths. One stepped out from the cave the group were living in, its crooked teeth exposed in a snarl and dripping in spit.
Luna leaned forward. "It's smiling," she noted.
"N-no...No. That's not smiling," Biddydee groaned.
"It's snarling at you," Celestia noted. She looked around then picked up a rock. "If you throw a rock at it hard away it'll either snarl hard or no more."
She was about to hand it to Luna when the triangular robot smacked the rock away. "You don't hurt them!" She looked to the creatures. "We call them mantifloks. They're grown for their scales and the meat that gets pulled out when you remove them."
"So you terminated them," Luna pondered.
Biddledee's eyes seemed to fill with enthusiasm. "Nope. That's the great thing about them. The meat that grows under their scales is superficial. Just there to make their hide even tougher."
Celestia leaned towards the fence. "Is there a method of removing them? They appear quite aggressive." She looked towards the 'farmer'. "Do I use this?" she asked as she raised a rock as big as her head.
"Wha-Would you stop that?!" Biddydee grabbed the rock and threw it as far as she could muster. "You're supposed to use our full bodies to hold them in place and peel the scales off from the back. It hurts them momentarily, but they're relieved afterwards." She revved up her internal engine. "Helps them renew their scales and remove potential parasites. Plus, we can see how healthy they are by the color of the flesh underneath." She squeezed her fingers together. "They have to be a dull gray. If it's a bright gray then it's still young."
They overheard louder yelling in the house, but it sounded more like laughter, leaving Biddydee to simulate a sigh.
"What is your point of view on the opposition of the makers that use black energy and blue energy?" Luna asked the triangular machine.
She watched Celestia drift off into the wilderness without the triangular machine noticing.
"I have a more in-depth point of view of it considering how and why I was built, if that's what you're asking," she said snarkily.
"Those are irrelevant," Luna rebutted.
"Well, I don't know then." Biddydee glared at one of the mantifloks who immediately returned to the cave. "With what has been intercepted from the blue, they mention my caretakers being sickly and wild because of the black energy." She walked around the pen, getting a better look at the creature present. "Everything was twisted and broken by the black, and yet...The more I look at images of the blue, it feels like the opposite."
"Is it because of the body types of the makers?" Luna wondered.
It took Biddy a moment to think of a appropriate answer. "No. It's just...Well, maybe. It's just everything I see that doesn't...add up." She gestured to the whole of the lands with an outstretched arm. "In certain seasons, we get a very colorful landscape, but often it's just gray and black. The lands of the blue, though? Always bright and excessively colorful, like the natural pigmentation had bee boosted."
The blue machine looked around and kicked the grass. "It could be that your perceptions are influenced by the bleak landscapes you live in and have always lived in," she posited. "Perhaps that is how the world is meant to look?"
Biddydee shook her head and leaned against the fence, her body ignoring the electricity coursing through it. Luna could see her foot planted in the ground as well as sparks running along pushed out lines of her chassis.
"Maybe, but what land rarely has any rain yet stays so...alive and vibrant?" she asked. "We have rain infrequently here despite being near the sea, but we still have rain. Could you tell me if that was just omission or--"
"I have not experienced any weather phenomenon aside from sunny and cloudy, although I believe there was only a single instance of rain." Luna's eyes flickered. "A lack of precipitation is abnormal to plant growth."
"You see?" Biddledee looked up and covered most of her face with an arm. "This snow also makes no sense. It isn't cold enough, but it falls regardless." She lowered herself a bit. "Granted, it's still cold, but not cold enough." The robot pounded her chest. "It does wonders for my systems though."
Luna thought deeply. "What about the creatures?" she asked.
"What about them?" Biddy asked innocently.
"I just believed you to have commentary on them." She gestured to the mantifloks. "Your cattle appears extremely aggressive. They are more than capable -and willing- to bring great harm to your m-caretakers," she caught herself.
Biddledee looked to them and swayed back and forth. "It's true that they weren't this huge when I was first activated, but that's just breeding. Five decades is more than enough time for such a short-lived creature."
Luna felt skeptical about that explanation. No creature in their right mind would breed what was clearly a predator to be far larger, even if they were used for food and materials. That they needed the robots' massive bodies was already a red flag to the machine.
"If my caretakers calm down, I'll ask them if you can come along to the city," Biddledee suggested.
"I will cross-reference data acquired from both experiences," she said. "I am curious to find new machines, then we need to return to the blue together."
"T-together?!" the triangular robot shouted in disbelief. "Hey, wait, where's your--"
A loud noise caused Biddy to jump. Celestia was cheering in the air after having thrown a large stone at the head of the mantiflok, knocking it out.
"Why would you do that?!" Biddydee shouted in disbelief. She deactivated the lock on the entrance and pulled the massive agglomeration of metal open. "It was knocked out completely!"
"Now we can gather the scales more easily," Celestia said as she floated downwards. The creatures in the cave sniffed and growled, trying to intimidate those invading their space, then Celestia looked right at them. They immediately scampered back to the furthest depths of the cave they could reach, piling atop each other if necessary. The white machine pointed to one of the creatures. "I want to throw a bigger rock at that one."
"No!" the triangular machine protested. "No more. No more throwing rocks at anybody!"
"What about a boulder?" Celestia asked.
Biddy stared at her in disbelief. "What? But I just said--"
"No no, she has a point," Luna spoke up.
"Is that why your magic always imprisoned everyone in stone?" Twilight asked the princesses.
"Unrelated," Luna answered in a suspiciously dismissive tone.
Biddydee was grumbling and panicking at the same time while trying to ensure that the mantiflok wasn't too harmed.
"What am I supposed to do?" she pondered nervously. The robot looked up to see Celestia miming picking up a boulder and smashing it on the creature again. "I'm going to the caretakers with this..." she said despondently.
"Okay," Luna answered.
The two followed the annoyed robot to the house while the other mantifloks slowly and hesitantly poked their heads out of their cave, worried that the crazy robots were still around. When the three finally entered the house, it looked like the interior had been flipped in every conceivable direction, plus some imperceptible ones. Luna checked her internal systems for how such a bizarre comparison came to.
"What happened?!" Biddy screamed in horror.
"Oh, you're back," Pa said. "We were just having a discussion on how to handle farms." He pointed to Galah. "The way the blues get their nourishment is hilariously outrageous."
The robot was sitting on an overturned couch bent and broken in five different areas. Food had been plastered everywhere, the caretakers were wiping themselves clean, and Rahllup was angrily trying to reattach a severed arm.
"Stop it," the male caretaker chided her. "We'll reattach it later."
"But it's my arm!" Rahllup complained.
The triangular machine stood straight and stepped in front of her comrade machine. "What happened to you?"
"We got into a fight, and he tore my arm off!" She pointed at Galah. "That dunce's arm's and legs are made up of such a dense material that he's borderline a military-grade robot!" She grumbled angrily, looking at her arm. "Wasn't even flinching when I was hitting him," she whined. "Might as well give him heavy weaponry and he'd be wandering about using it like a spoon."
Pa stared at her sideways. "That doesn't mean anything."
"Exactly!" Rahllup responded.
The robot angrily smashed a wall with the back of her hand after growing more upset at her inability to reconnect her arm. Annoyed, the male caretaker took her back outside to be fixed up and chided her for the damages. Luna noticed that the two infants were sitting in the middle of the carnage, eating what was left of the cake. Celestia stared at their tasty treat, much to the persistent confusion of her sister. Luna floated towards the two infants and knelt down, something she hadn't done in a very long time. Her bright, unblinking eyes were unnerving them the longer the children looked at Luna.
"Wh-what do you want?" the young male asked.
"You are infants."
"I-infants?" the child repeated as he looked to his grandfather.
He rolled his eyes. "Means kids, boy."
"Oh, then yes."
"I know of two as well," Luna said. "My owners have two infants." She paused a moment as she started to dig into her storage. "They are...as old as you? Older? Younger?" The machine was confused. "I shouldn't have gaps in my memory. I am...unsure how long I've been gone. I haven't been keeping track. Weeks? Months? A year?"
Pa grunted in response, his hands tightening on his loose pants. "Looks like you're under the constraints of the Immortis Law."
"The what?" Luna said plainly.
"The longer a being has to live, the less time they can perceive," Pa answered. "Never thought that theory actually had credence." He scoffed. "Shows what I know."
"Wouldn't the opposite be more appropriate?" Celestia asked.
The caretaker grunted and put a hand to his head. "This is too much big brain stuff for me. I haven't needed to use it in so long that my cobwebs have cobwebs. Go ask someone more modern," he told her.
Biddybee stepped forward. "I was thinking of taking them to the city, to see what life with the black energy is like compared to their home," she suggested.
"Oh. Of course. Their precious blue," the caretaker spat.
Galah pointed menacingly at him with a fully unfurled 'finger'. "Don't start again, old man," he threatened.
Biddy grabbed the prototype and slung him under her arm. "We're off," she said exhausted. "Oh, I almost forgot." She gestured to Celestia with a head bop. "This one went and clonked the head of one of the mantifloks with a giant rock, and now the others won't come out of the cave and the victim is knocked out. Might need to call a veterinarian."
Pa and the female both bounced to their feet. "What?!" they shouted in disbelief before rushing out of the house, much to the amusement of the children.
"To the city!" Galah declared.
Biddydee approached the two children first. "You two will stay here and behave yourselves."
The male crossed his arms. "And what if I don't want to?"
Biddy's limbs tensed. "Did you hear an upwards inflection implying I was asking a question?" she said more menacingly.
The child started melting away. "N-no."
The triangular machine jumped up and clapped. "Fantastic! Then let's go."
The group were back in the bleakness outside, being bombarded by the black, ashy snow. Luna felt something straining her circuits and had to let it out.
"You threaten the infants?" she asked.
"They're not threats," Biddy said dismissively. "I tried being more friendly and caring with them, but they're too rambunctious for that." She slapped her 'bicep'. "The caretakers taught me the best way to keep them 'in line' and to behave themselves. Reward them for good behavior. Take everything away temporarily for bad."
"That goes against the data I possess for infant care," Luna argued.
"Well, your 'infants' are from the blue. One can assume that there might be some psychological differences between the two, especially concerning the area of growth," Biddy said somewhat irritated.
Luna pondered the matter over, at first. "Logical."
As the group stepped out, Biddy overheard Rahllup yelling angrily in the barn. "Consarn it! Now ma other arm fell off!"
The group continued moving through the snowy landscape for a bit until Galah grew irritated. "How long is it going to take to reach the city. At this rate I'll dry out before we even discover other machines like us."
"At our rate of travel we'll arrive in about an hour," Biddy answered.
"And we aren't taking a vehicle why?"
Biddy continued staring straight forward. "Because we usually use our full bodies for travel. More than capable of traveling across long distances and carrying all we purchase."
"Well, it's too slow!" Galah whined. "I want to go faster."
"Our flight capabilities could make traveling much faster," Celestia contemplated.
"Then do you want to race?" Biddy asked.
"What is a--" Luna was interrupted by her sister before she could finish.
"A competition to see which individual or group of individuals can arrive at a set destination first," Celestia explained.
"Are we starting?" Luna asked.
"Not yet," Biddy interrupted. She rotated her arms and readied herself. "I have to warn you. I'm quite fast, but if you get there first, wait on the outskirts, alright?" she asked.
"Okay," Luna answered.
"Let's go!" Biddy shouted excitedly as she bounced from side-to-side.
She bolted off, tearing much of the ground up. The sisters watched her and grabbed Galah from underneath his arms. They floated upwards then jettisoned themselves far away, leaving Biddy to stare at them and likely complain. About an hour or so later, Biddy arrived, slowing her sprint gradually in hops and bounces. The group were waiting on the outskirts of the city where a few rundown buildings were located. Several containers and other equipment were set up around the area. Celestia believed that it was to raze everything and rebuild in preparation for an expansion. The lack of foliage other than some types of grass supported her idea, at least to Luna.
"If I was a human, I would definitely drop dead from this," Biddy complained. "I didn't know you could fly!"
"We never do, normally, but the lack of flying vehicles in your airspace makes it far easier than in our city," Celestia responded.
"Spend our time moving about by hovering over the ground," Luna stated as she pointed to her 'feet'.
Biddy stared. "Don't you walk at any point?"
The sisters shook their heads. "We weren't designed that way," Luna said.
"I have feet," Galah declared.
The three stared at him silently.
"I recall I have a few things to get at the local market, and I need to refuel myself," Biddy realized.
"Couldn't you refuel at your home?" Luna asked.
The triangular machine shook her head. "No. That fuel is for the full bodies and other equipment. We're short the regular black energy used exclusively for the small things like us, but that is coming in a few days." Her internal engine revved up loudly. "Well then, let's go for-Wait!" She grabbed Galah.
"What is it?" the prototype asked.
"You almost stepped on that rodent," Biddy alerted.
The three machines of the blue looked down and saw an almost canine-esque creature with a long, pink tail and several large, swollen limbs. It hissed loudly at them, its three eyes shooting lasers of anger. There was a ring with several colorful rocks embedded within its surface. A treasure that disappeared with it as it fled into the distance, disappearing over the ridge.
"Well, time to let you see what our cities are like," Biddy sated proudly. "Just don't be surprised that we have so little compared to what I'm sure are vast, seemingly endless expanses of land for you." She scoffed. "We try to grow up and down," she specified by pointing. "We're more conservative of the space we use up." She giggled smugly. "Saves up on consumption of black energy, too."
The three stared at each other, and Galah shrugged, prompting Celestia to attempt imitating the movement. The closer to the city they got, the cleaner and more advanced it became. Buildings became straighter, their forms stabilized by metal plates and stronger foundations and building materials. The cubic shapes started shifting into more cylindrical forms, and windows took on a gritted appearance, making it near impossible to see through them from the outside. Street lamps stood tall, their heads covered by a very shiny and polished cap that bathed a wide area in its bright, white light. Sounds of life started becoming more apparent, and the engines that the three heard from Biddy and Rahllup became louder and stronger, and cheering could be heard from time to time.
Luna didn't have the time to continue taking in the details around here that the very air trembled with reverberations. The ground shook, and although only Biddy and Galah felt the tremors, their bodies didn't move at all. The sounds became louder and louder until a tremendously tall and wide figure came into view from around the corner. It was a machine at least fifty-five stories tall, with no head or neck. Its main body was clamped down into a tight, and armored rectangular shell of metal. From the shine of the light that crawled through the clouds, Luna could see many dents and trenches dug into the metal hide of this monstrosity. She had trouble seeing it, but it seemed to possess two arms that remained hidden by the smaller buildings it stood in front of. A bright array of green cones of light jutted forth from its 'torso', shining in many different directions at once, each scanning the surfaces of the land before it as it moved forward.
It took another step forward, causing the streets and the trash cans to tremble even though they were held by metallic clamps into the ground. It made various sounds, again to the last breath of a dying creature and the screech of stress from overburdened steel beams.
"What is that?" Luna asked as she pointed to the behemothic monstrosity.
"Ignore it. It's not important," Biddy dismissed.
Luna felt extremely uncomfortable seeing it. Her circuits were stressing and the flow of energy seemed to be straining and choking in many areas. She didn't like the uncomfortable, erratic pulse and flow of the energy within her at the sight of it. Galah and Celestia stared at it, and they seemed to reflect that sentiment. Biddydee stopped moving and called to them.
"Are you coming over?" she asked.
They were about to when a second popped up behind the first when it raised itself up and landed with a thundering 'thump' onto the ground.
Twilight looked at the princesses stare at the images silently. The storytelling had ground to a sudden and abrupt stop.
"Princesses?" Twilight called out.
She stepped in front of them and realized that they had seized up when they saw the machines, even if it was from their own memories. Either they had something to do with what happened to the world, or it was an underlying case of phobia. At least, that's what Twilight thought to try and make sense of their reactions.
"What is that thing?" Twilight wondered to herself.
"Come on, let's go," Biddydee said more angrily. "It's just a parade. You don't need to worry about it."
"A parade of what? Gigantic heavy cubes?" Galah asked.
"Maybe," Biddy responded absentmindedly. "Where was that store again?" she wondered aloud. "It was brand new and the caretakers mentioned it having the best small parts."
Luna looked upwards now that she was within the confines of the city. Where the City of the makers was an organized, consistent place, the city of the caretakers was...chaotic. There were bright screens hanging about the walls in almost every direction she looked, wild images, colors, and people flashing about on them. Words and numbers and wild movements disturbed her optics. Noises, noises, and even more noises! She couldn't comprehend anything! Her head was spinning.
The streets were a bit more muted, however. Many buildings with tinted glass panes protecting the inside of stores, offices, or those other services from outside observers. Didn't help that they all had their own strange shapes and designs, like someone had grabbed a jigsaw puzzle and started forcing the pieces together.
"These buildings are all randomly designed," Celestia noted. "Are there no standardization practices?" she asked.
"The what?" Biddy said confused.
"Standardization practices. Makes building the structures much easier to handle."
Biddy scoffed as she looked around the streets, taking in the sights. "Sounds like your cities are incredibly boring. I bet all the buildings are blue or something."
"Not at all!" Galah interjected. He stepped over a hole in the sidewalk. "The makers ensured that the buildings would fit next to each other, but everything else is up to the owner. Colors are not a problem, nor are decorations or the shape of the interior."
Biddy pondered the thought a moment then shrugged. "Still sounds boring to me. Though I imagine that your skyscrapers are barely even close to having the same height and immensity as our own because of it," she said.
"Incorrect," Luna said. She stared at the skyscraper and roused the attention of caretakers walking down the street. "The skyscrapers and skypiercers are the two types of building that there are no standard designs for. The skypiercers especially have some of the most outlandish and-" She glitched, twitching. "-the most beautiful designs I have ever seen. They represent the epitome of what the blue energy can do just in an artistic sense."
"You okay?" Galah asked in a concerned tone. He leaned towards her. "You twitched there a moment."
"I am fine," Luna acknowledged. "A momentary issue."
There was a slight pause as Galah processed all the information. "Then I can laugh at you." He burst in exactly what he declared.
Biddy didn't appreciate it and stopped immediately, causing the unaware prototype to bounce into her. "Why do you laugh at her?"
"Because nothing bad happened." He shrugged, a smile internally forming. "I learned from observing my makers that as long as a person isn't hurt it's fine to laugh."
Biddy imitated a disapproving snort with her voice box. "Sounds a bit cruel."
"Pfff. Humor is subjective," Galah said. He didn't react when someone smashed a wooden plank into the side of his head and continued moving along. The other three stared in shock. "Some people think things are funny and others don't. Everyone has different tastes, but I personally think if they don't align with mine then they're clearly wrong," he said sarcastically with a hand to his chest. He noticed the three weren't reacting and had stopped, prompting the prototype's curiosity. "What?"
"Didn't you notice...You!" Biddy shouted after breaking through her shock. A stunned caretaker dropped the broken plank and backed away into a group of other people in the road. "What do you think you're doing?"
The female stuttered multiple times before she managed to get a word through. "Isn't it a robot of the blue?" she squeaked.
"Yeah. He is. So?" Biddybee asked aggressively as she leaned forward.
"How did you ascertain he was of the blue?" Luna asked as she floated into view.
The caretakers all gasped in shock and horror. The effect was more pronounced when Celestia appeared.
"This experience is very enlightening," the white robot said as she lowered herself and grabbed a fragment of wood. "Most of the data I've recovered from my data storage is either outdated or completely wrong on the makers of the black."
"What...what are those things?" a male shouted in horror and disgust. "I didn't see any announcement of a new robot being made by those of the blue." He pushed past the first female. "You're here to spy on us then destroy us, aren't you?"
Luna tilted her head. "Destroy? What would this accomplish?"
The male looked back at the group that mumbled to each other. "Getting rid of us and our black energy?"
Luna shrugged. "Illogical. Unnecessary loss of life and loss of an energy source."
The female scoffed. "It's still just a machine of the blue. It has no sentience."
The group prepared to gang up on the three robots, but Biddydee stepped forward, blocking their path.
"Move aside, Biddy," one of them ordered.
"I will not. You all know me very well as well as my sapience." She gestured to the group with a hand. "If I'm with them, what does it mean?" She leaned forward. "And don't say that 'I've been corrupted' or any such stupidity. We're too old for blue technology to function on us, and Rahllup would be furious." On mention of the giant one's name, the caretakers vocally displayed their worry and backed away instinctively. "I'm watching them, and they are accompanying me. If you have any issues then you bring them up with my family." The angry machine pointed at them. "And stop attacking machines randomly. It's rude and dangerous."
"F-fine. We'll leave, but not because you told us to," the male reluctantly accepted more out of fear than obedience.
"Those caretakers are...they were very aggressive, and they did that out of nowhere?" Twilight stated in shock "Why? What could that bring them?"
Luna tapped her head and her eyes illuminated briefly. "Well, because we only knew what the makers looked like, we couldn't determine it, but Biddydee-"
"Or Biddybee," Celestia interjected.
"...Yes, thank you sister," Luna sighed and rubbed her 'temple' with her ring hand. "Anyways, she told us that they were juveniles. Teenagers."
Twilight looked between the projected image and Luna multiple times. "Those hulking behemoths were teenagers?!"
"They weren't that big, Twilight," Celestia berated while shaking her head.
"They look like minotaurs!" the lavender alicorn shouted.
"You're exaggerating because you're excited again," Luna said flatly.
"T..." Twilight looked around as she tried to think of a counter. "N-no."
"They think -or thought rather- that beating on any machine that they think is of the blue is fighting what their home hates above all things, likely filled to the brim with lies filled into their heads before they're able to think for themselves. Venting anger that isn't theirs," Celestia explained. She dragged a hand across the surface. "Something we've done our best to prevent in Equestria."
"I mean, we had the advantage of them thinking we were gods," Luna joked.
Twilight stared wide-eyed at them. "What."
"That's for later," Celestia stated. "We won't be spoiling the story." She floated next to the former student and gently jabbed her a few times in the sides with an elbow. "We'll just keep dropping things like this to torment you, like with cliffhangers in stories."
Luna burst out laughing. "No better schadenfreude for an author than to stop on a cliffhanger."
Twilight frowned angrily.
Once they were out of earshot, Galah spoke to Biddy. "Sounds like Rahllup is a very scary machine," he commented.
"She defended me after I was activated for the first time by Pa and brought into the city to help with gathering a bunch of food for the family. Didn't have any sentience at the time, but the caretakers here thought I was of the blue because of my design and started attacking me."
"That's terrible," Galah lamented. "They should've been attacking you because you're of the black."
Luna smacked him over the head with a shard of wood.
Celestia crossed her arms and shook her head in disapproval. "Should've used a big rock instead."
Biddydee grumbled in frustration but carried on regardless. "Well, I hadn't been fully rebuilt, and so my insides were exposed. They damaged me into a state of non-functioning. Needless to say, had the family not come by Rahllup might have flattened the whole city after she gravely wounded my assailants," the triangular robot stated nonchalantly.
"Are we at our destination yet?" Luna asked.
She caught glimpse of a large, cylindrical vehicle with tank treads in place of wheels parked in front of a large hole in the ground around which there were many caretakers. Whatever they were doing, they were making a lot of noise and producing a lot of sparks. One went in with a large tube in hand, prompting mockery from the others.
"We just got in the city," Biddy groaned. "The Energy Station is still a few minutes away."
The buildings of the black were just as varied as those of the blue were colorful. They seemed to warp and twist even more the closer to the center the group got. What were once simple shapes started to become bombastic pillars of art and style. One of the buildings' central floors were twisted into two thick, intertwining spirals with windows connecting two blocking floors. How this could benefit the tenants seemed to be a quaternary thought to the architect. Another seemed to branch out like a tree, with several flat 'columns' jutting out of a thin trunk of brown bricks with green paint apparently leaking down from the roofs.
The cheering was getting louder, but the thumps were much quieter and much farther away, although there was a consistent sound pattern, like makers clapping together. Hundreds clapping together.
"This is it," Biddy announced.
The three machines of the blue were looking up the whole time and gradually lowered their heads. In front of them was an almost run-down and dilapidated old station. Eight silvery columns stood in front of it, a strange silver ball of light slowly rising and lowering in a transparent column of bubbling black energy within it. The sisters noticed that the energy seemed to be more relaxed in the tubing than when left to the air. The building was flat, short, and with only one floor. It was highly frequented, judging by the black, red, and orange tracks along the floor.
The three followed Biddy inside, where they were met with many rows of produce. Food, cleaning products, beverages, cheap toys, reading material. It was a bizzarety to the sisters. A tall and thin humanoid robot with two dots for eyes and a straight, flat line for a mouth was brooming the floors and taking inventory at the same time.
A fat caretaker was sitting behind the counter, reading a book and leaning against his arm. When Biddy appeared in sight, he nearly fell over but managed to save himself by clutching for dear life on the counter. He took several quick gasps before the panic started to subside. "Biddydee?! What's going on? Rahllup's the one what usually stops by for orderin'."
"Well, she's currently indisposed at the moment." Biddy averted her gaze and twiddled with her fingers. "Kinda lost her arms."
The male stared at her silently then started slamming the counter in laughter. "What in blazes took her arms off?!"
"I did!" Galah shouted in shared laughter.
The caretaker wiped his tear-filled eyes and stared at the prototype before him. "Another?" He leaned over the counter. "And what do you mean you did?"
Biddy pushed him back, or at least attempted to. She found him shockingly heavy when he wanted to be. "His body is weird. Rahllup thinks he's like a military-grade machine."
A snort and slow nod were the colorful responses given. "Kinda does look real he--Woah!" He bounced away when he noticed the two sisters looking at the colorful bags of produce together and throwing them around. "Why are there machines of the blue here?! I thought they were restricted to the air strips."
"You know they're from the blue but not me?!" Galah spoke in disgust. Insulted, he turned away. "Just because they look fancy and they hover and aren't filled with holes and they glow."
The clerk pointed to the prototype silently and looked at Biddy with bulging eyes. "He's a prototype," she grumbled. "Can I make my order before we start this whole discussion?"
It took a moment, but the clerk shrugged. "What do you need, then? I'd rather not be confused for someone of the blue."
"But you are not blue," Luna said as she floated over.
The man spoke to her passive-aggressively without moving his body. "I can figure that out."
"You're much larger than those of the blue," she continued.
The clerk looked down and grabbed his large, protruding belly. "I'm not that l--"
"And you are black entirely," she added.
Confused, the clerk looked at himself. "What? Entirely? But I'm not wearing any black and--"
Biddy angrily slammed her fist onto the counter, denting the metal surface. "My order!"
"Okay okay!" the male shouted in fear.
"We need two full tanks. Harvest season is coming around and Rahllup went and wasted more fuel chasing out what they call pests," she slurred in mockery.
Twilight raised a hoof. "Uhhhh, seems like a more aggressive version of Fluttershy now."
Luna and Celestia shared their tale with the guidance of Galah and Biddy in preventing an excessive amount of unneeded details. The station owner held his lower jaw as it hung open.
"Huh, so there's more like you, then," he commented. "How're you going to get any recharge when you're here without anyone knowing? There's no blue energy stations here." He cleared his throat. "Not like we didn't try to get that here." A loud thump shook the station and loosened dust from the ceiling. "And that parade is getting really annoying!" he yelled angrily towards the entrance.
"I'm curious," Luna started as she floated and looked around the station. "This building looks archaic. The floor is made out of an old stone, the shelves which house your amenities are rusted." She leaned forward and scratched them with her fingers. "And they're crudely painted on."
"And the light fixtures in the ceiling are no longer produced," Celestia added.
"What is this building?"
The station owner nodded in surprise respect. "You have a good eye, something I didn't expect from a machine other than Biddy and her angry sister." He took in a deep breath and looked around. "It's a historical site to remember a past long, long gone, when we used blood and bones to power our machinery."
Celestia looked to him then to the rest of the building suspiciously. "But you're still selling black energy?"
The caretaker nodded. "Like I said: This is mostly a front and also for the amusement of both me and the locals. We sold energy in the past and we're still doing it now." He stretched himself and leaned back against his chair. "I just like to stay here because almost no one comes by here to order anything. Mostly just farm folk like Biddy's family."
"I see," she said with a lower tone of voice.
After a moment of awkward silence, the caretaker spoke up. "So how is it possible that you three even became 'aware'? I thought it was tampering by that old engineer at the farm Biddy comes from."
"I looked at lights," Luna stated calmly.
Celestia jumped forward and floated diagonally in the air with a raised arm. "I looked at a big light!"
Biddy and the caretaker stared at her, baffled by the sudden emotional outburst, leaving everyone stare at Galah who stared blankly into nothing.
"That only that part of his data is corrupted is a surprise," Luna said. "I would have assumed that a prototype wouldn't be designed for long-term functioning."
"I wasn't," Galah explained after coming out of his stupor. "One of my makers replaced several of my parts, saying that they didn't want me to disappear." He punched his stomach several times. "Now I can come back with a more powerful, rechargeable battery."
"Well, more powerful for the time," Celestia sneered.
The shop owner shook his head. "How do you even find others 'like' you?" he asked. "I'm shocked you even managed to find any in the black. How did you do it?" He narrowed his eyes. "Did someone tell you of them? Are there others like her?"
Celestia and Galah backed away from Luna as she dug into her memory banks. Biddy and the caretaker seemed slightly distressed by their actions.
"I...am not sure," Luna slurred. She lowered her head and put a ring hand on her forehead. "I remember seeing figures calling to me when I am connected to a station for maintenance and recharging, but I only saw the vague essence of the black energy."
"Well, there's no stations here." The male sighed after another moment of awkward silence. "Do you still have to hang around my store? I don't need the authorities coming by and thinking I'm housing machines of the blue of all things."
Biddy looked over her shoulder to the three. "No. We're leaving." She tapped her arm as she tried to remember everything she was meant to do.
"Is it farm related?" Luna asked.
"Food for the livestock? Or the family?" Celestia asked quickly.
Biddy's head sparked. "Yes! Of course. Thanks for reminding me."
The four moved to leave when the shopkeeper suddenly remembered something and almost fell over. "If you're looking for robots like you, there might be one at the Neon Feather near the second skyscraper district."
Biddy put her hands on her hips. "I know how to get there, I think, but I've never gone towards the inner parts of the city."
The caretaker shook his head. "Know how to get there. Sure you do."
He gave her instructions on the quickest way to reach the Neon Feather, but a warning was shared as well:
"With that parade out there, they might be lurking around. They know you and Rahllup well enough, but they're still wary of you in general, and if they spot those three...Well, the absent-minded one could still be passed off as a recovery, but the two that levitate? You'll be stuck past the deep end."
Biddy mulled over the warning as she followed the instructions. As was usual, those who didn't go to see the parade were awestruck, yelling and gasping when they saw the sisters, but the closer they got to the Neon Feather, the more outlandish the scenery became. The roads went from a consistent graying-red to a golden tint that lazily altered to others colors by way of lighting underneath. It only changed twice to a purple-red hue that contrasted with the greens of the surrounding buildings and architecture. There were passages leading deep below ground, the archways sparking with holographic electrical arcs dancing across the metal. The passage itself looked like a dark tube. Whatever it was, Luna would never know.
Two buildings had an obnoxious mascot that Galah and Celestia hated with a passion. One looked like a happy, yellow lengthy creature with the insides of its multiple-mandible mouth colored blue. It had big eyes and was carrying pastries all over its head. The other was an eight-legged creature standing on only three with the other five covered in various colored fabrics and strings. It only had one giant, piercing eye used to illuminate the sign of the store. Both places were obnoxiously colored so as to stand out as much as possible. In fact, there was another pastry store across a large bridge standing over a deep chasm holding the remains of a river that was built to look like a giant, multilayered cake with icing oozing off its walls.
Twilight stared at the images with a slack-jawed expression.
"Something wrong, Twilight?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah. All these things of the black? They seem...familiar..." she stated with discomfort.
The two machines looked back at the images.
"Do you want to elaborate on that?" Luna asked.
"Well..." She pointed at the various buildings. "They all have unique and distinct architecture, and they even have weird looking designs for everything." She scratched her head. "Us ponies also tend to do that a lot, even when it's inconvenient." She looked back at the princesses. "Does that mean anything? Are we related in any way?"
Luna shook her head. "I doubt it. Nothing was left over when we awoke, so I honestly doubt the ponies we met were influenced by anything here."
"I don't see any influence from the blue, though," Twilight mulled aloud.
Celestia put her 'arm' to her lower maw. "Now you have me questioning this. I'm wondering if we actually do understand the power of the blue and black energies," she said worryingly.
"I think that's the Neon Feather," Biddy croaked with clear disgust.
It was a very tall building, easily ten stories tall, with several different roofs. Three spires of different heights rose from around it at different points, and the center mass was comprised of at least three different near-flat, octogonal, pyramids. The front had multiple different balconies, each receding from the one beneath it, and the higher they went, the more luxurious the furniture. From something made of the stained trees outside to more illustrious and polished stones to shining and embezzled metals and cloth. Around the building were multiple different single elevations upon which trees with leaves spiraling down their trunks like stairs stood tall and were still untainted by the black that clung to the air like a thick poison sludge.
"This place is very...eye catching," Galah said. "Never saw this in the blue, although they've always been more about practicality," he shrugged.
Biddydee leaned to the side and 'hrrmd'. "How are we supposed to find any robot in there with a potential personality? Most there are just servants and assistants for the performers."
"And judging by the dimensions alone, it will be a very long time before we can even identify them," Celestia noted.
The triangular machine looked towards Luna. "Why are you looking for machines with personalities in the first place?"
The blue robot stared silently ahead, no sound coming from her. She felt the directive trying to show itself to her but only arriving as broken packets. Luna twitched before answering.
"I...just need to," she said. "Others like me...It's...important."
Biddy would have rolled her eyes if she had any, but instead shook her head and grunted in annoyance.
"I'm-going on a break!" a loud voice shouted.
The group turned to face the source of the commotion and met with a machine forcing the swinging doors back in a failed attempt at slamming it. It was a bizarre sight, to be sure, but still too far away to be able to discern appropriately. It noticed the four standing and, after, some bizarre poses, rushed over to them.
"What kind of bizarre robots would you be? I've never seen your like here before." It put a finger to its 'mouth' and leaned back. "What are your owners using you for? Or are you here for a job of some kind?"
Its body was...odd for the sisters, to say the least. Even Galah seemed ever so slightly perturbed, but not by much. It's body was long and lithe, but with a pronounced inward curve at the waist line. Its legs ended in four sharp protrusions and were slightly wider at the knees than the upper-leg, creating an impression of a high-reaching boot, albeit one with weird feet. Its upper legs followed the same pattern, although they widened exponentially at the joints linked to the pelvic area. Its arms did the same thing as its legs, but its hands ended in six, thin, quadruple jointed digits that wormed and swayed in the air with every one of the robot's movements. It looked like it was wearing a sleeved coat on its forearms, ending in a very wide and pronounced opening at what would be the elbow.
Surrounding its chest and back was a large protrusion of what appeared to be fur or feathers. The group had a hard time telling what it was made from. More eye-catching to the average watcher was its head: Its cranium was rounded and smooth with two horns growing in a backwards-facing arc. Its elongated 'muzzle' was drawn into a permanent toothy smile, with teeth resembling discs that interwoven between each other and displayed an image upon them. It resembled steam leaving the side of a head. Luna was baffled. In front of it all, at the very tip, was a single fang with no other purpose than the obvious added decorum. Its eyes were mechanical in nature, protected behind glass windows and topped with mechanical eyebrows that slid up, down, to the sides, as well as bent and twisted with anything the machine was trying to do.
The blue robot found that its singular, pure white contrasted with the obviously eye-catching appearance its design was meant to cause.
"This is the one?" Biddybee asked in disbelief.
The machine leaned in, its head to the side in a mimicry of wanting to hear better. "One what? A performer?" It placed a hand to its chest, making its fingers sink into the fluff. "I am indeed a performer? The most esteemed!"
The triangular machine crossed her arms and stared at the dramatic robot before her. "Dhaa, this is the one," she grunted. "Ruined my mood, and I was feeling a bit better being in the city rather than the farm, too."
The 'teeth' of the machine spun to display a crude drawing of a maker getting sick. "Ew. A farmer," it spat in disgust as it backed away. It patted its chest. "I don't want your farmer dirt on my chest fluff. It's my selling point."
"His emotions are wild," Luna noted.
"Its physical character portend more to a female," Celestia argued.
The teeth spun around once more to display a face radiating elation. "I'm whatever the audience wants me to be!" it declared in a melodic tone.
Galah rubbed his chin pensively. "I'm wondering if it isn't convenience that is uniting us all now..."
Biddy poked the flamboyant creature in its chest, inciting an insulted response and a reflexive pull away while clutching the fluff adorning its chest.
"Stop touching my chest! Who even programmed you?" the flamboyant robot asked angrily.
"That's classified," the sisters responded in unison.
Galah shrugged. "I forgot."
Biddy stared at them, speechless. "Why did you answer that?" she asked them.
"Because it asked a question," Galah answered.
"It was rhetorical..." the flamboyant robot stammered. It huffed and straightened its weird body out, its teeth rotating to display a cigar and a wine glass. "You sure are strange folk," the machine said as it slithered between the four machines present. Its eyes sparked and its 'teeth' spun around uncontrollably when it saw Luna and Celestia. "What are these marvelous designs?!" it spoke in a hushed and awed tone. The flamboyant robot hovered its hands over the two robots of the blue as those it really wanted to touch them but was denied by some greater force. It looked briefly at Galah from over its shoulder before resuming its bizarre approach of the sisters.
"They're from the blue," Biddy explained. "And you seem to be exactly what they were looking for," she lamented.
The machine looked at Biddy with its equivalent of a shocked expression. "Really, now?" It stood up and fluffed up its feathery decoration. "And why would you be looking for a machine like me?" it asked with a tone of false-innocence.
Luna pointed at it. "Because you are like us."
The flamboyant machine laughed. "Like you? I wish. Like them?" it said as it pointed to the other two with its thumb. "They wish." Its 'teeth' spun to depict the image of a face heartily laughing.
"I hate actors," Biddy lamented with a groan. "Always full of themselves."
"Well, I have every right to be," the flamboyant machine declared with a huff. "I am a harmonious sour note. A tumultuous melody. A screeching cacophony of honey-glazed tunes. My name would be Dissonance, as I have taken to call myself after all this time."
"Your words are paradoxical," Celestia complained. She crossed her arms and 'pouted', much to Luna's and the other two's surprise. "I hate paradoxes."
Galah turned to face her. "You...hate paradoxes?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yes." She rubbed the sides of her head with the end of her arms rather than the ring hands. "They hurt my processing capabilities."
"Pain?" Luna whispered to herself.
Dissonance clapped their hands together. "Looks like she's developing pretty well, just like meeeeee!" the robot said as they twirled around.
"It seemed like Princess Celestia was evolving faster than you, Princess Luna," Twilight noticed.
Celestia tilted her torso hard to the side. "It's more that I was unhinged compared to her." She chuckled in a manner that creeped Twilight out slightly. "I'm sort of burn out from processing so much information all at once, after all. I was more bound tooooo..." She twirled a ring hand in the air as she tried to find the right words. "Have a more vibrant personality? Energetic?"
"Playful?" Luna proposed.
Celestia pointed at her sister energetically. "Yes, that's the one!"
Twilight frowned and stared at the sun princess with suspicion. "So you really are the younger sibling, although I'd say you've changed long since then."
The two sisters balanced their hands in the air, keeping them flat, and said 'eeeeh' in unison.
"It's more that we were forced to change and try and reign ourselves in after we awoke and met the ponies," Luna lamented. She rubbed the back of her head and looked around. "That's for the epilogue of our tale, however."
There was a long moment of silence. "Are you going to...do that every time?" Twilight complained.
"Do what?" Luna asked.
" 'That's for later'," the lavender alicorn quoted.
The lunar princess stared at Twilight. "Yes. That's how storytelling works."
Twilight rolled her eyes and slumped back down. "If you say so," she said with exhaustion.
"Hey, lazy bot!" a male voice shouted out.
An impressively tall caretaker had pushed the doors open and ducked under the overhead. The sisters never saw one so tall. "Get back in here! We have another show to do!"
"I'm on a break!" Dissonance shouted angrily. "I have a muse that must be explored! I'll return with many more ideas afterwards."
"What?!" The caretaker pointed threateningly at the fancy robot. "If you leave like that again then you're never returning here!"
Dissonance turned around, waving the male off. Their teeth has turned into a bored face blowing out a puff of air. "Yes yes, you always say that, and yet I'm your money maker." The fancy machine clapped their hands together and trudged forward. "Let's go then."
"Go where?" Biddy asked.
The flamboyant machine looked around for a moment. "Uhhh, I thought those two would know since they were looking for me. They must know where else to look."
The sisters shrugged in unison.
"We already found three of the black. We believed we could go back to show you our world," Luna explained.
"And I want to see your reactions to it," Celestia sputtered.
Galah leaned in next to Luna and whispered to her. "She's starting to scare me."
Luna patted him on the head after a moment of hesitation.
Dissonance shrugged and readjusted the fluffy scarf around their upper torso. "Well, let's get to wandering, then. I'd love to see what the 'blue' looks like, if you even know how to get back, that is," they said. Their teeth turned to a hand holding a bottle with a cheerful face next to them. "How about I take the lead until we reach the airport, eh?"
"I have a family member at the farm to get," Biddy said as though speaking through clenched teeth.
Dissonance reeled back. "Ew. Must we trek about the mud, dirt, and bumpkins?" The flamboyant machine dusted off their body and readjusted the fluff around them. "I hate dirt, let alone mud."
Biddy jabbed them several times in the chest, her innate strength bypassing whatever absorption the fake feathers had. "If you want to follow us then you'll do what I say, at least for now, otherwise no trip to the blue."
The machine grumbled. "Fine," it agreed reluctantly. "But let me lead us away from the soldiers. They're being weird today." Dissonance looked to the side. "Ah, weirder than usual, I mean."
Not knowing the difference, the group accepted the information and moved on, with Biddy satisfied that she could finally leave the city. She still had a ways to go and groaned internally at the thought. The city came more different and yet more uniform as the group followed the newest addition. Several small parks had been erected with different patterns and designs, some focusing on thick, forested areas and all the bugs within, while others took on sculpted marble designs of indistinct shape or form. There were construction materials around many of them, with plenty of land laid bare. There was still some more 'art' to spread.
During the travel, not many of the caretakers cared about the sisters, much to their surprise. Luna noticed that gazes would avert to passive neutrality when Dissonance was viewed.
"Dissonance," she started. "Who manufactured you?"
The machine shrugged. "I like to think that I just came into existence this way. I don't like to think about that sort of stuff."
Celestia slowed behind Dissonance and poked at their hull. "I can see the remains of a manufacturer's logo," she said.
The flamboyant machine slammed her hand away. "No touching!"
"They built you with such a...strange design?" Luna continued.
Dissonance laughed after they were assured the poker had backed away. "No, I modified myself." The teeth rotated to show a prideful and haughty expression. "I found my calling while wandering through these streets and started modifying myself." They spun around. "All you see before you has been modified in some way."
The machine's teeth spun rapidly and retracted in their extended maw as they grabbed the base. With a few clicks and jerking it up and down, the maw detached to reveal a scarred metal face. There were several dents, gashes, and scratches in the metal, showing that Dissonance had long since covered up whatever had once been there.
Galah and Biddy both recoiled in surprise. That a machine could, or rather would do such a thing to itself disturbed them greatly. Luna and Celestia leaned in with curiosity instead.
"And you two work on the blue, right?" Dissonance asked.
"Three," Galah corrected proudly. "Although I'm starting to run low. Only thirty seven percent left."
Luna floated towards the prototype quickly in response and dissipated her ring hands, creating a sparkling ring of light that quickly vanished into the air. She almost punched Galah with the speed and strength she used to touch his abdomen. The blue machine's limbs creaked and the plates rearranged themselves to show dozens of tiny cables running with blue energy beneath. They briefly shone lightly before Luna's arms returned to normal and she floated away.
"Transfer complete," she stated flatly. "I'm now at eighty-nine percent power."
Galah patted his body after finally unfreezing and checked his personal status. "I'm at ninety four percent charge," he stated in stupefaction.
The three stared at Luna then looked to her sister who was swaying her head left and right to a tune only she could hear.
"Well, I might not have to buy blue under the table!" Dissonance laughed happily.
Biddy looked at them sideways. "But you're of the black," she said.
The flamboyant machine reattached its 'face', with the teeth immediately rolling to a face winking and sticking its tongue out. They lifted their feathery scarf and opened their chest, revealing a faintly glowing blue shape haphazardly shoved into the wiring and various mechanical 'bones' and joints. It was a miracle nothing broke.
"I use it when I want to do something fancy for the show," Dissonance said as they fluttered their fingers in the air. "They're technically illegal, but they can never tell I have anything since I rarely have much in them." The machine closed its torso. "These hands are also something I added. Always liked the big fingers."
Conversations continued between Dissonance and the sisters mostly relegated to the newcomer's additions and what they did to get them as they were. A few caretakers had gathered around something the group couldn't determine. Curious, the three of the blue eagerly moved forward to see the source of the commotion, unintentionally pushing people aside roughly. A lance of yellow-orange liquid flew though the air and landed on the streets with a loud and continuous sizzle.
"Get out of here, you idiots! This isn't a show!" one caretaker shouted.
The others were quick to listen and bolted off, but the robots remained. The caretakers clad in thick plates of metal were there, giving a sense of unease to the sisters. They were doing their best to try and hold down a gigantic reptilian creature that had broken out of a large metal vehicle. The walls of it were bulged outwards in various areas, and it didn't take long to understand why. This behemoth of a monster was covered in red, bulbous scales with various lanky strands of flesh growing from between them in several parts along its back. Its head was thick with two eyes, but its lower jaw was partially split apart, kept together by a strong webbing of flesh, almost like it was slowly fusing together.
"What is it?" Luna asked Biddy.
The metal caretakers threw chains over the beast, working with the regular caretakers that had just emerged from the front of the vehicle.
Biddy rolled her eyes. "It's a delele, called so because of that weird sound it makes when it's about to spit acid."
"But I didn't hear it make any noise." Luna was interrupted before she heard a low, guttural drumming noises followed by the hissing 'lelele' noise that came from the muscle contractions of the creature's throat. "Oh."
"They'll never manage to get it to calm down if they keep attacking and strangling it like that," Biddy complained. "They're just going to continue stressing it out, and it's likely that that creature is going to hurt or seriously injure one of them."
Heaving a simulated sigh, the triangular robot slowly moved forward, making sure to keep herself at an angle so that the thrashing creature could still see her. It took no time to get annoyed at two of the caretakers handling its chains, using its strong, six-digited claws to try and swipe them away, but the metal caretakers were the closest to its limbs, and pneumatics absorbed most of the blow, shifting the metal of the armor to lessen the strike on its wearer.
"What are they doing?" Dissonance shouted. "Come back! It's going to kill you!" Biddy ignored the warnings and continued. The flamboyant machine's teeth spun to show someone shrugging. "Well, I tried," they said half-heartedly. They fluffed up the giant scarf and crossed their arms through it. "Maybe I'll have some inspiration for a future show."
Biddy dodged to the side, avoiding the metal caretaker picked up and thrown towards her. She analyzed it as best as she could and shook her head. She started fumbling with her left forearm, then hit it with a fist. A very loud and reverberating 'ding' resonated from it. The delele flung its upper body straight into the air as it looked around for the source of the sound. The caretakers were stunned a moment, confused, but they too were attracted to the source of the noise when it happened once again.
"Down here, you giant," Biddy called out.
The creature slammed itself down and stared at her, its teeth bared and its opponent unflinching. Getting a better hold on the chains while the creature was distracted was the first thing the caretakers dealt with. As the monster readied to spit its acid, Biddy struck her arm once again, stunning it. It laid its head down, allowing her to check its scales and coo at it.
The flamboyant machine leaned in towards the other three. "What's she doing?" Dissonance asked the Galah.
"She's good with animals," Celestia said. "Taught me that the best way to knock out an angry is with a rock."
"A big rock," Luna added.
Dissonance slowly retracted themself, looked at the two with skepticism. "Riiight. A farmer taught you to do that to their machines." The two looked at the flamboyant machine and nodded.
They watched Biddy somehow taming the gigantic beast, occasionally using her greater strength to grab and push down its head or hold it in place. She let go of it and slowly walked backwards towards the group whilst keeping her eyes on it.
"I wish I could take it home with me, but these creatures have no use on a farm and are quite dangerous to the livestock if left alone," Biddy lamented.
Several armored guards came from around the corner, chains in tow and slowly approached the incident while one holding the creature back let go and moved to the machines.
"Machine, how did you do that?" the metal caretaker asked angrily. "Who programmed you with such knowledge and capabilities?" He leaned back and looked Biddydee up and down. "I don't know your make. Are you a custom? Do you have any blue energy within you?"
"I'm a native model," Biddy responded with a heavily insulted tone. "And how am I supposed to be of the blue if I'm functional here?" she asked.
The male was taken aback. "Wh-You're displaying...emotions? Wh-wh-what is your primary directive?"
"I just came here to make orders of black energy for my farm."
The metal caretaker put a hand to his hip, holding a deformed bulge that the sisters hadn't yet noticed. "What did you do to that thing?" they asked Biddy.
"I soothed it. Deleles are calmed by that song, provided it's as close as possible to the sound their father makes when displaying safety around the nest after the mother has hunted and killed everything around." She tapped her head. "It took a few attempts to get the right sound." She pointed to the creature who was now lying down and staring at her. "If you get that thing back in that vehicle it will go on a rampage again. It's far too small for that lizard."
The metal caretaker shook his head. "I'm getting advice from a robot of all things." He heaved a loud sigh. "I'm no idiot and I saw firsthand that what you did worked." He looked back then analyzed the machine. "I think I heard of self-aware robots in this city, but I thought that was just a publicity stunt." His body tensed and he pulled out the misshapen metal object from his hip. It was almost as long as his arm, and he was quick to point it at the sisters. "What are these?!" he shouted angrily.
"What are what?" Luna asked.
"Don't move!" the metal caretaker shouted. There was a loud beep before the caretaker spoke again. "I have a possible illegal blue here. Might need backup. Will advise if containment necessary or a false alarm. Determining threat assessment at this time. The source are robots."
Dissonance slid forward, standing between Biddydee and the metal caretaker. "I'm sure you're quite mistaken. There are none of the blue here." They procured a card from the flood and handed it over to the caretaker. "You see, these are just tricks for my show. They can walk fairly easily, and the lights on their bodies are just added features." They laughed then leaned in and whispered. "Unfortunately they don't turn off. Good thing we don't need sleep, eh?" Dissonance winked and backed away to the sisters. "Watch and you'll see!"
Galah leaned in, obviously stress-whispering. "What are you doing? How do you know that's why he thinks they're of the blue?"
"Oh right. I forgot we have plenty of glowing robots over here that hover everywhere constantly," the flamboyant machine growled back. "C-can they even walk without the hovering?" Their teeth spun to that of a face chewing on its nails.
"I don't know! I've never seen them do anything but hover!"
"W-watch closely...!" They slapped Luna in the head angrily and put their hands on their hips as the sisters realized what was wanted and dropped onto their 'feet'. "There, see? It's all part of getting the new programming running and determining any hiccups in the execution thereof."
"Another one?" The metal caretaker lowered their weapon. Luckily, he was too far to notice the fine details on Dissonance's teeth. "Hey wait, I know you. You're that weird, really sporadic machine from the...oh, what's it called again?" They snapped their fingers several time. "Neon Feather. The sergeant major talks about it so much I can never forget the name. She says she's obsessed with this weird robot that uses blue energy to make its show 'explosively fantastic'."
Dissonance's gears got caught on a wire, producing a nasty wharbling whirr noise. They had to slam their chest to get it untangled. "What? Blue energy? A-Blbfg I eh, rrm. I don't know what you're talking about," they attempted to deny. They crossed their arms and turned their back on the metal caretaker.
"Oh, calm down. She told us to leave you be since the amount you use can hardly be considered useful to anyone but some trickster machine with a flamboyant and showboaty personality." He readjusted the metal shape in his arms. "I don't know how you use it, and I should take you in, but if the measures were negligible then I can figure that you're using some weird thing with those two as well." He pointed aggressively at Dissonance. "You're lucky you're famous in this city. In any other I would have shot you to pieces already and scrounged through the remains." He put a hand on his hip and pointed the object to the sky. "I can't defy orders, though. Not sure why she doesn't do it herself and call you for acquisition and the establishment's owner in for questioning," they mumbled.
Loud thumps filled the air, terrifying the sisters. It became louder and louder until the buildings started shaking violently with every boom. The delele was starting to stress out as well, and the crew were starting to panic as it became antsy. Green cones of light slowly emerged from behind a building further down the street, and the metal caretaker that had confronted the group was clearly getting furious. He started yelling into the air whilst looking towards the source of the many cones.
"This is our chance," Dissonance yelled. "Let's go!"
"But the delele...!" Biddy said.
"You can stay here if you want, but I'm not interested in seeing one of those things when it pops by. If you're really from here then you know what they are!" Dissonance said. They grabbed Biddybee by the shoulders. "There's no reason to worry about them. That caretaker knows. Let's go!"
She looked back and forth between the two and clenched her fists while her eyes sparked. "You're right. Let's go."
As the group fled through the city, the sisters took the lmead effortlessly, but cars were starting to travel around again, albeit in small quantities. It took some time, but everyone had managed to reach the outskirts of the city with some effort.
Looking back, Dissonance sighed in relief. "If I was a caretaker I'd probably be panting and exhausting right now with the trek we made. Might need a refill on black energy, though." They noticed the other four staring and shrugged. "Oh, why not?"
They keeled over, struggling to hold themselves up, needing to push against their own knees to keep from falling over. Dissonance continued pretending to be gasping for air and suffering, going so far as to clutch the fluff at their chest like their lungs were burning. Biddy rolled her head and walked away. The other three followed her. Even for the sisters, the day was filled with much information, and they needed time to sift through the information and determine what they would keep and discard, among other things.
"Wait!" the flamboyant machine shouted. "You don't like my performance?" The group didn't answer. Eventually they went off the damaged, dusty road to walk and float over the ashy grass and mud. "What are you doing?"
Biddydee turned around first. "What are you doing? It's quicker to reach the farm if we cut through these woods."
"But...It's dirty," Dissonance complained. They stroked their giant scarf. "I'll get sticks in my fluff," they complained like a child.
The triangular robot shrugged and gestured the others to follow. Being left alone after what had happened began stressing the actor's circuits, and they reluctantly screamed 'fine!' and followed, complaining about how disgusting the woods were on the way.
"What was that?" Galah asked Luna. "You can transfer energy to other machines?! I didn't know you could do that!"
"It's an emergency feature in-case there are no maintenance terminals nearby or there is a power transfer shortage," Celestia explained. "It allows a machine with enough energy to transfer some to another model, allowing them to save all crucial data and enter sleep mode until they can be transferred to a functioning station or be powered in another fashion."
Luna looked at her forearm. "I saw...I was told to do that. Red lights flashing across my screen. You would cease to function..." The machine grabbed her now trembling arm with the other to steady it.
A malfunction from not having been at a maintenance station for so long. She was starting to miss the station back home. Home. With her makers. The ones who acquired her and unboxed her. Luna wanted to somehow instantly reach it and enter her station and just stay offline for a few days.
"What are these bizarre program executions?" she thought to herself. The blue machine looked up at her sister giggling as she talked to a Galah too confused to know if he should be happy or angry. "Is this what she exe...feels all the time?"
"There you are!" a worried voice boomed out. It was Rahllup. She rushed forward up the steep hill the group were on and bear-hugged Biddybee. "I was worried. You were taking way too long!" She caught sight of Galah, and her internal furnace flared up, making the glass acting as false eyes brighten angrily. "And y-" Her furnace flickered dark. "What is that thing supposed to be?" she asked after dropping the triangular machine.
Dissonance was whining and complaining about all the dirt on their legs and the various debris getting stuck to their scarf. Judging by the almost inaudible tone of their mumbling, they sounded close to crying, even if robots couldn't cry.
Biddy slouched down and looked at the flamboyant machine slowly making its way forward. Her face became covered by a hand dragging across it. "An actor..." she groaned.
"It's another robot 'like us'," Biddydee continued. She looked back at Dissonance flinch from a tiny bug buzzing near it and slouched. "Well, 'self-aware' at the very least."
"It?" the giant machine said.
Biddy shrugged. "Said they were whatever their audience wanted them to be."
Rahllup watched Dissonance screech when a lump of ashen snow from a tree suddenly fell on them. She crossed her arms and nodded. "Ah think it's cute, like a squishy toy."
"Shouldn't we get going?" Galah asked. "If we stay here any longer Dissonance will probably implode," he mocked.
"Fine." Rahllup poked Galah several times in the chest. "Ah have no idea what yer s'pposed to be, but ah'll get ya back fer what you did to my arms."
Galah stared at her. "You did that to yourself, though. No one asked you to detach your ar--"
They were interrupted by Biddy stepping between them. "Can we do this another time? My power levels are running low from the little run we did and I'd like to be full before we do another power consuming activity like you two punching each other and losing your arms."
The two agreed, and Rahllup stomped her way towards Dissonance, grabbing them by the head and slinging them over her shoulder. His system was too shocked to properly process the events that just took place, and he was admittedly very scared of this gigantic machine with flames as a face, so he remained silent.
The two sisters remained silent as they followed behind, listening to the group conversing and Dissonance trying to dissuade a confrontation between Galah and Rahllup, the latter wanting to use the flamboyant machine as a weapon. Their programming started to eb and sway, glitching with more and more processes crashing and needing to be rebooted or rewritten altogether. There was a yearning as they watched the group moving along. An unknown sensation, uncomfortable as it was. Celestia felt a pang of desire, perhaps, or joy, or melancholy. She wasn't sure what it was since she only had a written explanation of emotions in her storage, and machines were never meant to become self-aware.
Luna, however, was not taking to the processes very well. She looked at her arms again, then back at Galah. She still needed time to process. Perhaps an answer to what happened to her would come at night. The diagnostics were at least mostly reliable in that regard. Mostly.
It wasn't long until everyone reached the house again, and Rahllup dumped Dissonance into the dirty ground with a chuckle and headed over to her home.
"No!" Dissonance cried out. "I'm dirty," he whined. They shook their arms and frantically patted their fluffy scarf in some desperate attempt to clean it. "I didn't even know there were others, let alone gargantuan behemoths!" They looked angrily at the sisters floating by, ignoring Galah who was already ahead of everybody. The flamboyant machine watched him walk through the door, destroying it before announcing his return, seemingly oblivious to what had just occurred. "You two, why didn't you warn about another gargantuan behemoth?" Dissonance yelled.
Luna stared at them. "What does--"
"Very big," Celestia anticipated and explained.
The blue machine looked back at the house and could hear everyone yelling at Galah who, as always, remained confused and oblivious to his actions. "We said we were looking for others like you and we were going to a farm."
"Yes, I gathered that, but why did you not warn me about the giant," Dissonance repeated.
"You met with one. You didn't react. We figured you wouldn't mind another," Luna said flatly.
Dissonance had to make several attempts to process the information they had just acquired. "That's not even remotely the same! One has a sleek and elegant design, while the other looks like a swollen mass of metal with fire as a face!"
"Yes."
"...Fine." Dissonance stood up and wiped the dust off their chassis as best as they could. "I'm going to meet this plebeian farmers and see if I can gather some story inspiration from their simplistic lifestyle."
Annoyed, the flamboyant machine walked towards the house, tripping and flinching at every rock and bit of dust that flew at them. The sisters were going to follow when Luna suffered a system malfunction and collapsed. Her sister was quick to catch her and wait until there were signs of rebooting.
"What happened?" the white machine asked. "You crashed. Too much information being processed? A process failing? A part malfunctioning?"
Luna stared at the dark sky, noting that it never really changed regardless of what time it was meant to be. She raised her arms and saw them trembling. "I...I don't know. I thought a full system analysis would detect the issue, but..."
Celestia continued bobbing her head left and right and up and down to an inaudible tune. "But?"
"When Galah said his power cells were low..." Luna glitched and her eyes shorted briefly. "Red alerts appeared in my view, but there were too many. They were loud. Many many voices. If Galah shuts off..."
"We can reactivate him."
The blue machine stared at her arms like they were parasites draining her of blood. She twitched a moment and her lights changed in luminosity randomly and erratically. "M...Maybe, but him going. No more Galah." Luna looked towards the house and Saw Galah cleaning up his mess while pa and his son were holding a new door further down the doorway. "We can't restore him. We can't...restore the others." The images of the enraged machines from what she could at best define as 'dreams' rolled in front of her vision, staying in small squares and repeating in non-synchronized fashion.
Celestia stopped dancing and stared at her sister. "Then their data is corrupted?"
"No. They're...Not replicable. We don't..." Luna's twitching and glitching were starting to ramp up in intensity, reminding Celestia of herself when she was finally freed. "Unable to read the information. Unknown data format."
"You need to terminate these tasks of yours. They're overloading your system," Celestia said. "You don't have the same pathways that I have. Your system can't handle the strain."
"...But yours can," Luna said with a strange tinge in her voice. "I...will keep these errors under quaternary processes. They're not necessary to our continued functioning."
"Let us return to the home and inform them of our intention to return to the blue," Celestia said calmly. She raised her sister up. "No need to dwell on non-functional processes. Those lead to eaten resources and crashing."
The new door was already up, and the family was already almost to bed. All that were left were the robots and Pa. The latter was sitting on the stairs leading to the second floor.
"Took ya long enough," he complained. "Thought you were both exploring the environs or something." He pointed his thumb at Dissonance. "Brought in this weird poofy thing, now?"
"I'm not poofy, I'm 'puffy'," the machine corrected.
"Figured you'd be coming back with twelve or something." The caretaker burped and coughed afterwards.
"Told you ta stop that. Real gross," Rahllup complained.
She and Biddy were standing in front of the path to the kitchen, while Galah was sat in the space between the couches facing the television.
"I do what I want!" Pa retorted. "I'm old enough that I can burp and fart wherever I want and people think it's just a sign of a failing body!" He chuckled to himself. "Always think I can't help it."
Biddy sighed. "And we told you that it's disgusting to the other caretakers, which is why they don't like to talk to you or even acknowledge your work on robots."
Pa waved the notion off. "They never did to begin with, so why would that change now that I'm old?"
Galah scratched his head. "Don't makers view age with respect? The older scientists and engineers I knew were respected and looked up to by their peers."
The old caretaker remained silent for a moment. "Then they were lucky they had that kind of relationship with their employees at their workspace."
Luna watched him stare at the floor for a long while, curious as to what might be happening in his head. She felt her body starting to tremble when Celestia put a ring hand on her shoulder. The blue machine's gears relaxed almost instantly.
"Awww," Twilight coo'd. "Even back then you cared for each other like sisters."
The two stared blankly at the former student. "We were sisters, Twilight," Celestia said in disappointment.
"Well, y-That's not what I meant," Twilight stuttered. "I mean, even when you still weren't fully 'aware' you still cared a lot for each other like siblings would." She looked back at the image. "Something I wouldn't have expected at all."
The alicorn got poked in the ribs by her former teacher. "I'm just ribbing you, Twilight. We know what you meant."
Luna shot up and angrily pointed at her sister. "No! Not the puns! Don't you start again!"
Celestia floated against the ceiling, laying her back against it and holding her arm to her face. "Sounds like you're still sour about losing that contest."
"You...!" The lunar princess crossed her arms and turned away. "Maybe."
Twilight was completely confused. "What? Contest?"
"Nothing important, Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said. "Maybe we'll tell you the tale another time," she added. "Plenty like that from the time we awoke to now. There's even villains and events that no pony remembers at all."
"But we still do," Luna said with a sly tune.
Twilight could swear that the sisters were smiling, even if she couldn't see it on their faces.
"Anyways, I would very much like to see the blue," Dissonance said. They had decided to lie down on one of the couches despite their weight. It seemed that the family had reinforced everything for the two giant machines that worked around the farm. "I've heard many rumors and tales and made so many performances based on them." They rolled over to look at the sisters. "Seeing you two, I bet they're all real!"
Rahllup scoffed and Pa gave a single laugh in response.
"What is a rumor?" Luna asked.
"It is conjecture based on information obtained through often-times unreliable sources," Celestia explained. She looked at Dissonance without turning her head. "Often accepted as truth by the most gullible or hopeful." The white machine accessed her database. "They often lead to different forms of entertainment by the more creative parts of the makers."
Luna's lights seemed to brighten on the idea. "And what kind of rumors have you heard?"
The flamboyant machine pulled off their scarf, revealing a plethora of scrapes, scratches, and deformities in their chassis. Dissonance seemed annoyed enough with the dirtiness that they pulled off their most prized possession to clean it as they talked. Pa leaned forward when he saw the machine's body. "I've heard that streams of water fly in the sky to and from various parts of your cities, carried by invisible canals in the sky that only your vehicles can see. I've heard that your buildings all float and reach high into space, where your actual homes lie, letting ships dock after they've sailed across the stars." They looked at Galah before patting the scarf hard. "I used to think that all machines from the blue were these strange, incomprehensible constructs, advanced beyond understanding, and while I see that with you two, I don't see that with him," they scoffed.
"I'm advanced too!" the prototype yelled.
"Sure you are, sweetheart," Dissonance teased. "You're somehow less advanced than that triangular behemoth yet you function on the blue."
"Don't be fooled by his appearance," Rahllup warned. "There's somethin' wrong with his chassis. It's like a military grade robot."
Dissonance's teeth spun to show a face raising a brow skeptically. "But for the tales, I've heard that the ground beneath your feet is part of your machinery and technology, and that it goes down for miles and miles! That you shift and change everything when you need to, and so the city is never the same and always has something to explore every day! That you have robots like flying serpents that swim through those dark tunnels, bringing like and color as they create more machinery." Their eyes somehow sparkled. "Even your makers have evolved beyond what the caretakers are, becoming some kind of ascended machinery! Almost god like thanks to the help of the blue and some energy we don't know about!" They checked their scarf and quickly lowered it. "Is it true that you have another energy source that we don't know about? Is that how you can be powered for so long and you float constantly?"
"Geez, like a tiny child, this machine," Pa commented. "How do you even develop into things like this? Your codes are weird."
The two giants stared at him, insulted.
"You programmed us," Rahllup said through non-existent gritted teeth.
"Bah, superfluous information," the old male dismissed.
"So?" Dissonance insisted. "Is it true?"
"No," Luna responded flatly.
When both she and Celestia noticed the machine slowly slump back onto the couch, they felt something in their systems, and the alarms sprung back into Luna's vision. They both had to say something quickly.
"Those may not be true, but we have other things for you to witness," Celestia said. "Our vehicles fly in the sky."
"The streets roam with different robots of various generations," Luna added.
"The streets and buildings look like clean, white sculptures accented with many colors and lights."
Luna dug deep into her database, where she kept her most prized memory. "And there are tremendous buildings whose forms defy anything you could imagine. They're beautiful when paired with the night sky, and they are...gargantuan," she explained.
Dissonance seemed to perk up at the thought. "I'm very eager to see what these different generations of machines from the blue look like."
As per Pa's suggestion, everyone would have to wait until the morning to have a discussion on what to do and whether the two giants would join the sisters and Galah on their trip back, however that would be done. While Biddydee was partial to the idea seeing as she could see animals she'd never seen in the black before, Rahllup was entirely opposed to the idea. She liked her farm life and didn't like the idea of going to the land of 'pompous blues'. Dissonance, however, was metaphorically bouncing off the walls with excitement. It was a veritable treasure for centuries that they discovered through haphazardness and were more than overjoyed at the prospect.
However, the two sisters, even when in sleep mode, couldn't help but repeat the sensations they felt that day caused by Dissonance. Even Celestia was slightly perturbed by what had happened, and she knew more things than most machines could store. That said, there was nothing they could do about them, and so those thoughts and errors would be left to the side. What was left was figuring out where to go even if the two didn't come with them. Overloaded with thoughts, the blue machine awoke from her sleep and looked around. Her sister was still floating next to her in the living room. Biddy and Rahllup had gone outside while Galah and Dissonance had collapsed on the floor.
Luna carefully unlocked the front door and floated outside. It was very quiet in the dark of the night. She hadn't realized just how much a different place could be in the dark. There was only the ruffling of leaves in the wind and the various squeaks and chirps of the varying insects around. Insects. A quick glimpse around revealed that the giant things that had welcomed the three when they first arrived weren't there. An opportunity wasted to learn more.
Luna looked up, hoping to see the stars again, but there was nothing but the gray clouds above and a lack of falling gray snow. She felt frustrated and kicked a mound of snow that had accumulated into a little pile all over the farm. The one thing that could calm her! But...There was a bright light spotted in the sky once more. The blue machine could see it pierced through the clouds, although it was still rather hard to see. It looked like several blue circles some ways away from the bright dome of light that came from the nearby city.
Bright beams of light grew from the land below, looking like very tiny plant stalks. They rose to the sky and wobbled around before all were focusing on the blue lights above. Luna wasn't sure what it meant, this dance of lights, but she appreciated it. It didn't have the same appeal as the giant building and all the lights of the city she was activated in, but it still had its own identity. She watched as more and more of them popped in at varying distances and intensity, all wobbling about until they eventually focused on the blue lights above. This lasted until the gray of the sky started to brighten. Luna had been awake in a sort of stupor, staring at the lights of the sky.
"What the," a voice stammered. "You're already up?!" It was the male caretaker.
"It is around four in the morning," Luna answered.
"And you're always up this early?"
"I do not sleep."
The male paused then mentally slapped himself. "Oh. Right. You're a machine. I keep forgetting, what with you all having personalities now that aren't preprogrammed." He looked around and took in the freezing air of the night. "This is getting overwhelming." He heaved a long winded sigh.
"Your work?" Luna asked.
"Ha. Of course not." He pointed at the blue machine. "You. You machines starting to develop your own personalities. It makes no sense to me. As far as I know, no one ever did anything that would make it possible." He smiled. "So, do you have any way of explaining what it felt like? To become aware?"
The blue machine looked at her stable arms, expecting them to start trembling at any second. "It was...a slow and harrowing experience. There's something pushing me...Even now. I don't know what it is, but when I connect to the service stations within the blue, I can feel that there are others like me around."
The male seemed perplexed. "But...we aren't connected to your network. I take it you just came here randomly?"
"No. I saw...angry black clouds devouring, and I felt something nudge me this way," Luna said.
A tap of the leg was the caretaker's first response. "That seems mighty strange. I don't think that even Pa would have an answer for you. I'm sorry."
"I used to think it was because of the blue energy," Luna continued.
"But then Rahllup and Biddybee or...dee...not sure anymore-Wouldn't have became like they are." The male sat down on the porch of his home and looked to the distance. Luna tried to imitate him despite her hovering legs and let them dangle off the edge. "There are mysteries here that I don't think will ever get answered." He turned to face Luna and patted her on the back, his size and strength throwing her forward each time. "But that's why life can be interesting for some."
"...Life?" Luna repeated innocently.
"Oh yes. There are various different things that you can do in it, although not everyone gets the chance to do what they feel they were born -or in your case made- for." He sighed and laid back, keeping himself up with his hands. "I'm sure that you're going through quite a lot right now. Biddy and Rahllup were already the way they were before I was born, so I don't know what it's like, but don't get too consumed in thought. I can already see it happening." He tapped Luna's head. "A farmer has to think for their work, but if they think for too long nothing gets done." His eyes lit up in sudden realization. "Speakin' of, I gotta get the two giants up for work. Them mantifloks get pretty ornery if we don't feed 'em four times a day." He grunted and spat. "There's Rahllup's speech pattern infecting my mouth again."
Luna remained motionless on the porch, unresponsive to anything passing by her until her sister came to her two hours later.
"Luna, are your systems functional?" Celestia asked her.
The blue machine looked up. "Yes. I was enjoying this position, even if my chassis is not made for it." She stood up.
"Do you want to help Dissonance around the farm?" the white machine asked.
"Certainly, but we don't know much of it ourselves."
Celestia shrugged and the two reentered the house to see the giant female and Pa talking with Dissonance who had crossed their arms and, judging by their teeth displaying an upset face, was quite angry.
"I refuse to do these peasant chores." They waved the back of their hand at the two caretakers. "That's for you lot to do. I'm an artist," Dissonance stated, posing with a knee bent forward and a hand on their scarf. "I'm just here to learn and be inspired."
The female stood up straight, towering over the machine and poked them hard in the chest, throwing them off-balance.
"You took our black energy to recharge yourself. You are going to pay off what you took, or would you rather be stuck here and not directed to wherever the nearest multiport is located?"
The infuriated machine clenched their fists then stomped the ground. "Fine!"
The caretaker laughed. "You two, show this frilly puffball to the pen in the back," she commanded.
"Then do whatever you like."
"Hey!" Dissonance yelled. "Why can they wander about but I have to work in this...horribly dirty environment?" Dissonance lamented.
"because they only use blue energy," Pa answered. "I don't see you only functioning on that. Plus, they don't take up much space anyways. Don't quite like the idea of my two precious constructs bein' taken away by them, but I figure it won't be forever, right?" he asked after shooting his gaze to the sisters.
"I...No. That is not the plan," Luna said after a moment of pondering.
"Good, then off with ya."
The group moved towards the cave far in the back of the land. They saw the true bodies of the two giant machines going through the fields. Galah was carrying much of the larger equipment that would take twenty makers to even budge. He was being helpful in the work, something that poked at the minds of the two sisters. They were distracted from their thoughts by Dissonance screaming at the sight of the monsters behind the cages. It and the others yiped in surprise when the sisters came into view and scampered clumsily about to get away from them.
"What are those things?!" the flamboyant machine screeched.
"Mantifloks," Luna said flatly. "They peel the scales off their backs because it comes with excess meat and you can use their scales for something." She wiped some snow off her head. "I don't know what they do with them."
Dissonance jumped backwards with a squeak when one of them smashed themselves against the reinforced metal pillars, seemingly trying to get at the machine.
"They want me to work with these things?!" they shouted. "How?" Dissonance looked around. "And where did the white one go?"
Celestia returned with a giant boulder in her arms. "First, you need to get a big rock," she said.
The mantifloks had tumbled over themselves and gotten stuck at the entrance of the cave, all of them frantically trying to get away from the machine as it rose higher and higher into the air. Dissonance and Luna's gazes were pulled towards the source of ever-loudening thumps in the ground. A giant hand grabbed the rock and ripped it out of Celestia's hands, crushing it in one swift motion into dust. Its hand shook up and down, getting rid of the aftermath.
"Now what?" the flamboyant machine asked with a trembling voice.
"No rocks," Rahllup said. "Didn't Biddybee tell ya not ta do that to 'em already?" Her voice boomed through the speakers of the machine.
"You're...in there?!" Dissonance shouted in disbelief.
"Yes yes." Rahllup raised her hands and shook them from side to side. "Oh wow. She's so big. That's her real body?" she said in a sarcastic and high-pitched tone.
Dissonance huffed. "No need to be sardonic." They looked to the side and remembered the initial problem. "What am I supposed to do with those things?!"
"You go in and use that hookly next to the cage door," Rahllup explained.
Dissonance slowly made their way under the guidance of the sisters and clumsily picked up a telescopic pole with four teeth at its head. With a button the mouth opened and closed.
"And then?"
"Get the ones with the darkest scales and pluck those off. Place 'em into one of the buckets dangling on the pillars."
The machine looked to the monsters. "And how do I know they won't destroy me when I step into the pen?"
A loud, annoyed grumble came from the titanic machine. The stomach opened and Rahllup detached herself from the connections and hopped onto the ground, producing a loud thump and a brief tremor. She pulled the interlocking gates apart with her brute strength and dragged Dissonance in with her.
The mantifloks stared at her with enlarged eyes and watched her as she mimed things silently. Luna and Celestia watched her from above. The only motion with her hands they recognized was her pointing to Dissonance and motioning to herself. She then motioned to them about potentially chomping on the actor, finish with her pointing to herself, then them, then punching her open palm. A deafening metallic bang startled the creatures, causing them to scamper about and eventually free themselves from the tangled pile.
Still silent, the annoyed giant pat Dissonance's shoulder then walked away to reconnect with her real body and resume work around the farm. Still terrified, Dissonance stared at the creatures, the hookly tightly bound against their chest. Both parties stared at each other in terror.
"Dissonance will adapt to it," Celestia said. "Let's explore the environment. We only acquired moderate knowledge of the urbanized areas of the black."
"Should we explore the environment of the blue afterwards?" Luna suggested.
Celestia paused a moment then twitched. "There are no longer any non-urbanized areas of the blue."
"Oh," Luna said with a tinge of disappointment.
Celestia clutched her head. "Unsure when it occurred. Too many conflicting records in my database," she strained to explain.
"What?!" Twilight bellowed.
"Twilight, if we weren't machines you would have deafened us right now," Celestia complained.
"I'm sorry, but what did you mean by no non-urbanized areas anymore?" Twilight looked at Celestia with a tinge of anger, disappointment, and shock. "Did they live on islands back then? H-h-h-has the time caused everything to drift into new continents since then?"
"No. They were massive continents," Luna explained.
"But...how did they survive? How did anypony survive?!"
"Twilight, try to relax. You're starting to hyper-ventilate again," Celestia warned.
The lavender alicorn took several deep breaths to try and recompose herself. "I didn't even think such a thing was possible," she mumbled to herself. "Even now we can't do those kinds of things," she said. "Just how capable were these 'makers'?" she mumbled to herself.
"Very capable," Luna said. "Something that you will..." She started glitching and her lights dimmed as she rebooted.
"Something that you will no doubt come to learn as we slowly approach the end of our tale," Celestia continued. "I'm more eager to tell you what happened afterwards, but you can't rush a story to get to the drama." She seemingly attempted to 'wink' at Twilight with her digital eyes and wagged a finger. "There's no fun in that,"
Twilight sighed and narrowed her eyes. "As you've both told me." She looked at Luna. "Is she going to be alright?"
"She'll be fine. She's just rebooting. It's a lot of data to go through all at once," Celestia assured.
The sisters noticed movement in the trees of the forests surrounding the farm and saw the gigantic, insectoid creatures scampering about. They seemed to notice when the sisters were looking at them as they would dodge out of sight when they could. The two zoomed their sight closer to get a better look at them, and it seemed that, while aware of the sisters' gazes, were more focused on the gigantic bodies of the two farming robots. Luna noted that they seemed to be particularly scared of the one Rahllup was in and would swipe at the air or hiss at it whenever it came into view.
"Hm?" Luna hummed.
Celestia immediately followed her sister's fixation and noticed a vaguely bipedal figure standing in between two of the insectoid creatures with an arm outstretched towards one of the trees. Its body was fully obscured by the shadow of the canopy above it. The sisters could spot some snow through it. Whatever it was likely had holes through its clothing or body. Its eyes were giant, featureless, perfect circles of lime-green light that stared directly at the sisters. The two moved in tandem slowly in various directions and noticed that it followed them with the same intensive staring they shared. A change broke the locked eyes when the creatures moved away and scampered deeper into the forest, leaving the farm alone for the day. The bipedal creature jumped on the back of one of the creatures and sat down with its legs crossed. It remained motionless as it vanished into the forest.
The forests of the black were a thick molasses of gray snow and strange colored plants. Much like the trees, they were all mostly shades of whites, blacks, and grays. There weren't very many creatures that were easy to spot, even to the two machines. Tiny little gray things slithered through the black and white foliage, throwing about the leaves and snow everywhere. Long, spindly vines curled onto themselves when the sisters poked them, trying their best to escape the perceived attackers.
Luna happened upon a group of very small plants with cone tops. She noticed that a lot of them had been nibbled by local fauna, with many missing tiny pieces of themselves in random places and various amounts. Scattered all about them were white lumps sticking out of the ground. Lumps that didn't look like vegetation. The machine lowered herself and tugged on one, plucking it out with relative ease. They were bones. She witnessed her sister poke one and get doused in an explosion of yellow and pink sparkles. Much like the snow, the sparkles slid off her body, leaving behind a deflated plant with nothing to show for its display.
"They eat bones?" Luna wondered aloud.
"Where would they get them?" Celestia added.
Luna checked her data storage, looked at her sister, then shrugged. Celestia imitated the action.
"Should we continue exploring?" Luna asked.
"There's nothing for us to aid with at the farm. the makers were explicit on that, I think," Celestia answered.
"But Galah was left behind," Luna added with a tinge of worry.
"I think he can manage. Rahllup couldn't hurt him, remember?" Celestia said.
Luna nodded. "Then let's continue gathering information of this place for those of the blue." She looked around and tilted her head. "I have found no traces of the giant creatures we witnessed yesterday."
Celestia kicked another mushroom that exploded angrily at her. "The snow covers the tracks. Too much snow," she grumbled.
They resumed their traveling, coming upon six-legged, skittish creatures with four jet-black eyes shaped like horizontal rectangles. They were covered in blackish-gray fur and had tiny antler-esque growths along the back of their necks culminating into two giant growths on their heads. They bolted away when they witnessed the two machines approaching, leaving behind a rather wide stream of water. It had gray particles flowing down its body, with black plant life beneath the water and a prickly residue growing on its banks. Luna reached into the water, but her arm started emitting blue sparks that caused the river to bubble angrily in response. The blue machine was quick to remove her arm and check for damages. Nothing.
"The river is filled with black energy," she noted. "It doesn't like me."
Celestia dropped a rock she was ready to drop on a creature in the river and looked at her sister. "There are no damages, but I have no information regarding such interactions." She tapped one of her chassis plates. "Perhaps it's a more natural form of black? Maybe the energies don't work together?"
"But Dissonance has both, and other such interactions have yet to occur," Luna argued.
Celestia remained silent. They decided to resume their escapade, but in the corner of Luna's eyes, perhaps unaware, the area where the now sparkling water had hit started to melt away the snow and reach the black, near-lifeless soil beneath. A thick patch of green grass grew from the patch, and while they pushed upright in a flash, they quickly turned to black ash, coating the ground with a shorter patch of snow.
"What was that?" Twilight blurted out. She was pointing at the images.
"What was what?" Luna asked in surprise.
"You didn't see? In the corner of your eye?" Twilight added frantically. She pointed using a magically created arrow. "Right there!"
The two sisters leaned in, focusing their optics as best as they could, and Luna replayed the image multiple times. The lights of their body glowed brighter and brighter as the realization hit them.
"Could it be...?!" Celestia said in a hushed tone.
Luna's lights flickered then dimmed. "No. If it were just those we still wouldn't be here, and yet...The grass died immediately."
The white machine hummed pensively.
"I guess we need more information," Twilight supposed. "There's clearly a catalyst," she pondered.
"There's more than one, most likely," Luna added.
"I hadn't even thought of those," Celestia said with astonishment. "Do you believe it could be elements that came to be while we were asleep?"
Luna crossed her arms. "The prevalence of scientific elements now that didn't exist back then make me wonder a lot of things. The black and blue energies alone couldn't have caused that."
The deeper into the wooded areas the two got, the thicker it became. For Celestia, this area was a very remote location or didn't have many resources, which is why it was occupied like in the Blue. That said, the two often came across ruins of old buildings of stone, concrete, or wood. One such wooden cabin was still freshly being eaten away by nature. Its glass windows had been punctured by enthusiastic vines while others had fallen and been buried. The roof was bending inwards but had yet to cave in.
Curious, the two went inside, expecting a similar layout to home of the farmers. Instead they found a rather empty-but-large area overgrown with weeds, moss, and a few tree sprouts.
"You think the maker who lived here left?" Luna asked aloud.
"The house is in bad condition. I would imagine so." Celestia poked a closet sitting against a wall and caused the rusty hinges clinging only by force of will after all this time snap off. "Cloths are still here. Sleep and dryness would have been difficult without them."
Several beds were placed around the single room cabin, but they had all collapsed from rot, and their mattresses were black with mold. In fact, to the sisters, it seemed that whomever lived here left behind all their things, and likely in a hurry since tables and chairs had been thrown and overturned. Tableware had equally been shattered and tossed about randomly.
"I don't like this place," Luna complained. "There isn't much to explore."
"Then let's continue our wandering in the forest," Celestia suggested.
More plants and animals wandering around. Luna managed to catch a tiny furry creature no bigger than her ring hands with four legs, seemingly no ears, and a long and pokey tail. "Look at this tiny thing, sister," she called out.
Celestia floated in and leaned in to see the angry creature desperately trying to poke out Luna's eyes; eyes which she didn't have. The white machine's systems whirred.
"It seems aggressive," she noted.
"I don't understand why," Luna lamented. She stared at the tiny creature. "Perhaps I should soothe it as I did the infants of my owners?"
Celestia shrugged and nodded at the same time.
The blue machine held the tiny, hissing 'beast' in her arms and gently leaned from side to side, moving her whole body like a pendulum. The creature wasn't having it and, with an exhausted and limp slip of her arm, jumped off and skittered away, leaving the two confused.
"I don't understand why it ran away," Celestia said. She looked to her sister. "You were not harming it in any way."
"Maybe it was just skittish?" Luna pondered as she watched it scamper away.
Perplexed, the two left the creature alone and continue to move about, choosing to climb the increasingly hilly area. Several cliff faces had made themselves known among the landscape and the trees, leaving behind tiny fissures that only small animals could really enter, much to the sisters' dissatisfaction. They noticed discoloration in several parts of the exposed stone layers at various different sites. One had been blackened in a circle, and the stone carved through. Another had this in its topmost corner, creating a scooped out zone. A few of this circles had borne several very long black vines covered in tiny thorns and sporting very sharp leaves that chopped away at the stone they were growing off of as the wind blew.
Curious as to such a thing, the two started scrounging about in the tall grass and bushes. They would lift up rocks to see if any of the weird vines or signs of discoloration were present. Celestia had found a tiny bug that sprayed her 'eyes' with a steaming green sludge. She just dropped the stone on it and moved on.
"I don't see anymore," Celestia said as she looked around.
"I'll survey from above," Luna said. "Maybe I'll get a better view."
She felt the energy in her body coursing faster and faster as she rose higher and higher and was unsure of where the sudden draw of power was coming from. It felt like she wanted to keep exploring and discovering more. It was a similar sensation to when she explored the city of the Blue. The city was far, far away, and only its tallest buildings were still visible. Luna hadn't realized just how far from everyone the two had gotten. Various raised cliffs broke the landscape of trees, seemingly pushing them up against their will. There wasn't much else besides some plants and movement in the trees implying various large creatures might be traveling through them.
Luna would have frowned if she had a face. She wasn't interested in going any higher than she already was, preferring to stay as inconspicuous as she could despite the way she stuck out. "Tree, tree, tree, segmented metallic pillar collapsed onto a caved-in cliff side, tree, rocks...I can't see anything. The angling of the hills makes it too hard to see without going any higher," she told her sister after lowering back down.
Celestia was enveloped in the need to analyze a shiny rock she had found. "Really?" The white machine dropped the rock. "Well, let's keep looking around for more of the fauna and flora. "Perhaps I will have more information to facilitate recompiling of my data."
Luna was confused. "Why would you say that?"
"I've been doing it since we came here. References make it easier," Celestia answered with a happier tone. She bounced up and down. "And I've been registering and labeling everything we've been finding and seeing here! Most of the information I managed to recover was either wrong or outdated." She picked up some snow and let it drop. "Data mentioned the lands of the black being greener and the forests as very small and weak compared to those of the blue."
The blue machine looked up and up and up the nearest tree. "But most of these are at least three times the size of the makers' farmhouse."
Celestia giggled and her systems glitched, causing a few spastic movements. "I wonder what else there is to find here? I'm looking for plant life specifically right now."
Celestia sped off with an enthusiasm that Luna hadn't seen since she first met her sister. Some time later, the two broke through the canopy to a steep, bumpy hillside overtaken by the white fungi they had seen earlier. In fact, they seemed to have devoured acres of land by themselves and were steadily growing bigger and bigger. Some had turned brown as they decomposed, however, letting their inner spores and slime coagulate into rivulets leading from their host to the ground. There were also various strangely shaped mounds covered in snow and the grayish, leafy ferns of the area. They were hiding something.
"Oooooh, so this is where the bones came from," Celestia nodded to herself.
Luna felt her arms shaking again. The sea of mushrooms covered bones emerged at varying levels from the black dirt. The biggest mushrooms had covered the most amount of them, and larger, fractured bones were tangled in their roots. They littered the area, and there were no signs of any animal save insects and some fiber-like plants slowly inching their way through the landscape somehow.
"That's a lot of mushrooms and bones," Luna said. "Maybe they grow from the bones?"
Celestia nodded. "They probably do." She poked a mushroom and giggled at the spray of spores, prompting an annoyed groan from Luna who checked herself after that unexpected glitch.
"Odd," she thought aloud. "So many diagnostics to run," she lamented with a fake sigh and drooping of her arms.
The sisters looked to the giant metallic object and hummed. Curious, they finally approached it. Celestia placed her arms on it, creating a loud vibration that traveled through it and scared off some animals that had made their home on it.
"It's made of metal," she noted.
"Yes, but it's not a plant or animal," Luna said.
The white machine scrutinized the rusted metal layers and looked down at the base. Slowly she started to rise upwards, analyzing every minute detail and wiping off any dead plant matter and snow that had accumulated atop its frame. Luna looked on past the horizon and noticed various other parts of the forest had been left bare with no trees. Rarer were strange chimneys spewing an acrid black screen into the air. To her it seemed the makers of the Black worked in this forest, but she wasn't sure for what.
The blue robot slowly rose up to rejoin her sister who was floating at a joint of the metal part. Celestia was currently antagonizing a small, feathered quadruped with a beak hiding in holes of the collapsed cliff rubble. It was trying to claw at her with the two fingers jutting from its wings.
"This is very high up," Luna said.
"You can see a lot from here," Celestia said without taking her eyes away from her new discovery. "Would be a nice place to build a home for the makers here. My database shows that some like homes in high places so they can see many things all around and have a large amount of sunlight."
Luna rubbed her chin pensively and leaned in to better look at the tiny creature that her sister became enamored with.
"We have barely begun exploring the black," Celestia countered.
"Perhaps, but if we keep traveling away at our current pace, then it's likely that we might need a day or more to return." Luna's systems calculated possibilities and the distance already traveled. "We should have determined a max radius of travel."
Celestia looked around and spotted a giant orange stalk raising from the treeline far away then recede. Some black smoke was left behind. "Those of the black seem to be working here as well. We still have a few hours until what could be considered nightfall here."
Luna looked up at the clouds, wanting to look through them but finding too many obstacles. "It is always dark here, though."
The white machine poked at the angry creature in its nest again and chuckled. Shocked, she checked her vocal software and hardware. "Odd." She gave pause and hesitated to look to her sister, her body twitching as she slowly turned. "Have I ever displayed such a vocal clip before?"
Luna looked to her arms then, with a slow and subtle movement, shrugged in response. Celestia's systems sparked and one of her 'eyes' fizzled briefly. The two remained silent, taking in and saving several different angles of the landscape before them. Only the annoyed little creature in its hole still hissed at the duo. The blue machine looked down at the metal they were floating above and tapped it a few times with her ring hand.
"Did you determine what this is?"
Celestia shook her head. "No. It's a part of a bigger machine, but I cannot determine what kind of machine. The markings have faded away due to its exposure to the open air with no maintenance by the makers."
Luna felt disappointed and looked down at the mushroom field. "That is a shame, but inevitable. I wish to return to the farm."
"Then go," Celestia said. "There are no threats to robots out here, save a lack of energy replenishment."
The blue machine grabbed her arm, noticing it starting to shake again and her systems producing no error log in response. "But...I don't want to be alone." Her voice changed volumes randomly as she spoke.
"Then you can stay here with me as I continue to explore this fascinating landscape and compile all the information being found," Celestia responded.
Luna twitched. "But we need to return."
Celestia analyzed the intensity of the filtered light coming through the clouds then calculated in her head. "We can return by their equivalent of an 'evening'. This will give us ample time to continue exploring the environment and compile a list of elements that are erroneous or absent from the database in the blue."
The blue machine thought long on the suggestion, and her arm gradually ceased its trembling. "Very well. An acceptable compromise." She looked around. "I still find it odd that we found no trace of the gigantic creatures that were attacking the farm when we came here."
Celestia's head dropped. "I wanted to log and categorize their behavioral patterns. So many possibilities for their attacks on the farm when they know the two giants are there." She looked around, trying her best to see any potential traces of the creatures and twitched her head. "Perhaps we will find them in the days to come."
"Or they will find us," Luna countered morbidly.
The two returned to the house long after their last hours of exploration, seeing not much else of the local fauna and flora. Celestia's excessive need to poke everything had likely contributed to every creature actively trying to avoid her. The duo saw the giants still working in the vast fields while Galah and Dissonance were missing. After some searching and seeing the female caretaker and 'Pa' working on some plan outside on one of their pilotable vehicles, the two overheard the tv blaring its noise.
"...so the pink energy will be shelved until further notice," a maker covered in several thick layers of protective gear announced. They looked like they were about to burst, and the surface of their body was covered in a strange, crystalline sheen. "There have been too many problems with it, and I'm quite frankly terrified on what would happen were we to deploy it now with its..." They juggled their hands as they attempted to find a proper term. "instability."
They continued exchanging words with the interviewer, but the two had already tuned out the voices. Galah was slumped against a wall, his body emitting dangerous amounts of heat haze. Dissonance, on the other hand, was frantically using a brush they had taken from somewhere and were trying to get as much dust and dirt out of their precious feathery scarf.
"I see you two have been busy in your endeavors," Luna noted aloud.
Galah raised a 'thumb' while Dissonance looked up briefly, their gaze hazy. It's when they realized who was in front of them that it became filled with venom and embitterment.
"You didn't tell me I would have to...to...debase myself in such a manner!" they complained. "I'm covered in head to lower extremity in filth!" Their anger quickly changed to dramatic woe. "The humiliation of it all! I only wanted to take inspiration from this simplistic lifestyle for my stories and plays on the stage!"
"You're doing that already!" a voice called out from the kitchen. The male caretaker walked in, wiping his hands with a cloth that had turned black from whatever had been on his body. "Stupid idiot. You wanted the experiences for your 'puppet show' or whatever it was," he mocked. "Observations don't give the same experience as actually doing the task itself. I could only get so far understanding how something worked when my pa told me 'bout it. Learned the hard way how the tasks were when I started doing them in person."
Dissonance's teeth spun around from a worried and stressed face to one seething with rage and baring teeth. "I didn't need to know the specifics by having my icon threatened," they growled.
The male shook their head, preceding the return of the whole family. Luna greeted the children and, as per her programming, checked on them to ensure no dangerous wounds were present and they were well fed. Rahllup intervened, however, by grabbing her torso and gently pushing her away.
"No need fer that," the giant said. "They can take care've themselves."
The blue machine looked to the two running upstairs to their rooms with large bags on their backs. She felt...upset.
"What happened to Galah?" she asked.
Biddydee laughed. "The idiot tried to one up us in our true bodies and overloaded his systems." Her mocking tone gradually turned sour. "He should've cooled down by now, however."
Hearing this, Celestia hovered over and crouched down. She passed her hand over the prototype, looking at all the imperfections. "Bring him outside," she told her sister.
Without hesitation, they used their chassis plates to scoop up the old machine and take him outside and laid him onto the dirt. With much effort and careful positioning, the two used the floating plates to pry open Galah's old and decayed body. Almost instantly the two were assaulted by an intense heat wave that blew the falling snow away for several seconds. The white-hot metals within the machine immediately began cooling and changing colors.
"What in blazes?" Rahllup shouted. "Ah thought ya tried again!"
Galah shook his head and sat upright. "I've never pushed myself so far before." He looked down at his exposed circuitry and tilted his head. "Fascinating. I didn't realize my flaws were that extensive."
Celestia raised her arm to hand the armor of the prototype back, but Luna pushed it down. "Perhaps it would be best that your inner circuitry and skeleton to the open air for the rest of the day and night."
The white machine looked down then dropped the armor onto the floor, kicking up gray dust. "I agree. Best to be certain the heat build up doesn't repeat itself."
Galah got up silently, grabbed his removed armor, then went to the porch of the house and lied down, slumped against the wall. Luna's vision started blaring with red lights and garbled red text while looking at him and seeing all of these events transpire, but she didn't know what to do.
"How is your power supply?" she asked the prototype.
"Thirty-seven percent," he responded. "Will be fine until tomorrow. Low power mode."
"Galah..." Twilight's words caught in her throat while she tried to find a better way to say what was on her mind. "He seems strangely fragile," Twilight lamented. She looked at the sisters with eyes full of worry and pity.
The sisters chuckled, and Celestia was the first to share her thoughts.
"Yes. He was...a strange one. A very fun one, but a strange one." The solar princess looked longingly at the image of him slumped against the wall. "So many defects and problems, and yet they never seemed to bother him," she said.
Luna mimicked Celestia's actions and lowered herself to ground, sitting on it and putting a ring hand to her forehead. Her head slowly moved from side-to-side as she spoke. "He caused me all sorts of grief, even back then when I couldn't feel it yet." She chuckled. "The first of the blue that we met and who was immediately capable of thoughts and emotions." Luna looked to her sister. "You know, we never did learn about his actual past."
Celestia 'sighed' and crossed her arms. "I was curious then and I still am."
Twilight left the two to reminisce, but she found their tones to be...off. They had spoken of the others in more delighted spirits, even when they knew they were lost after all this time. Her eyes gradually widened when she came to multiple realizations, none of them good.
Celestia wrapped an arm around her sister and pushed her inside, when Pa and the female caretaker greeted them.
"That's a nasty defect your friend has," Pa said. "Looks to me like it was just a hodgepodge of prototypying and new ideas that obviously never made the cut and were shelved." He cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with an arm. "I'd be surprised if it makes it the night with those fau..."
The caretaker found his words stuck in his throat when he saw Luna's head shoot a look in his direction. The lights in them were intensifying, almost like they were going to melt him? Luckily Celestia's head patting broke the blue machine out of her trance. The caretaker massaged his throat, finding what happened to be unclear but stressful.
The female put her fist on her haunches. "If you're all going to calm down, then I have some good news: We have a way for all of you to go to the blue, if you're still willing to go."
"Yes!" Dissonance bellowed at max volume.
The caretakers flinched and rubbed their ears.
"Stupid machine," the male complained.
"You'll be going by boat," she continued a little more loudly.
"That is illogical. An aircraft would be more efficient," Luna said.
"Well, tough luck. The closest multiport isn't open to the public, and the boat is," she explained. The female took a deep breath. "The ship is aligned with a captain who works for a trading company; one of the few that is allowed to trade with the blue. Problem is, these trades are on rotation: Two ships at a time, and he's on said rotation in a week. We produce rare goods which he takes directly, so you lot will be going along with it since he owes us a favor." She narrowed her eyes. "You'll be on a vehicle. Just takes a few hours to get to the port." She answered the question before any of the machines could answer. "I don't know how long it'll take. Ask the captain or the crew. They'll know."
"And we make him rich with the percentages he mooches off us," the male said under his breath.
The female laughed and pointed at the machines. "You three will need to get reserves of black energy with you."
The sisters looked to the two giants. "You're coming with us?" they asked in unison.
Rahllup crossed her arms, the flames acting as her 'face' flaring up. "Yeah. Figured we could get produce from over there 'n bring it over here to see if we can grow 'em, or at least breed new foods."
"And I want to see the creatures that inhabit those lands," Biddy stated with glee and joined hands.
Rahllup scoffed. "Y'always want to see animals."
Biddy smacked her behind the head. "Don't mock my hobbies, barbecue."
The bulky giant returned the gesture, just a little harder. "Don't hit me in the head, skinny."
The triangular machine poked Rahllup in the chest several times. "We're the same size!" she stated.
The bulky machine slapped her fingers away, prompting the two to start getting more aggressive to each other. This incited Pa's attempted intervention to get them to not fight in the house, to no avail. They started wrestling with each other and trying to get the other stuck in a lock. Whilst they were tossing and tussling, loud stomps came from the entrance of the home. Galah had reattached his frontal plating and was running at the two with extended arms.
"Free-for-all!" he bellowed gleefully.
"What?!" the two wrestlers shouted in fear.
The prototype body slammed into them, throwing the three through a wall separating most of the kitchen. The caretakers were horrified at the destruction wrought upon their home. The younger caretakers coughed as they moved through the thick cloud of dust and the uneven debris littering the floor. It was hard enough to see with their eyes watering that they attempted to shield themselves with their arms. To their astonishment, Galah had the two giants locked in place.
"Galah, let us go!" Biddy shouted. "We weren't actually trying to hurt each other!"
"We just like to get into fights!" Rahllup shouted.
Luna's eyes brightened to quadrice their normal illumination. "I thought you were recovering from your overheating," she said.
"I still am," Galah said as a faint haze emerged from his body. The weight of what he had just said slowly started to dawn on him. "Oh wait..." His body whistled and a large amount of heat blew out at once.
"You morons!" The female caretaker bellowed. "You're destroying our house!"
"But we didn't-" was all Biddy managed to get out before she was somehow lifted up in the air by the enraged female.
"No! You and that furnace-face are going outside and staying there!" She kicked the backdoor open and threw the machine out. Biddy landed with a very loud and heavy 'thump'.
Rahllup was quick to scamper to her feet and jump outside, dragging Galah with her. The enraged female snapped around, glaring at the sisters and Dissonance, fists clenched and chest heaving up and down in anger. However, she didn't have time to say anything when she noticed Luna and Celestia already clearing away the mess and analyzing the walls.
"What are you doing?" the female said in confused anger. It suddenly appeared to be misdirected.
"Observing the composition of the wall," Celestia said. "I want to see if there's a way to properly repair this or replace it without needing to destroy what's left."
The woman stuttered, trying to formulate the right words to respond. Dissonance watched intently, writing down everything he was seeing in his memory storage.
"You better keep a close eye on that one," Pa said. "That prototype isn't functioning properly." He became tense, leaning against a hand grasping at his chin. "You might have to...destroy him in the future if he continues with that chaotic, unpredictable behavior."
"...Destroy?" Luna repeated quietly. Her voice became more distorted and muffled as though far away, like the voices from an old radio. Her arms began to quiver.
Pa nodded. "Yes. Who knows what kind of threat he'll become in the future, whether intentional or not?" He looked towards the hole in the wall and crossed his arms. "This was just a wall. Easily replaceable since the house hadn't collapsed, but what if it did?" He grumbled in annoyance. "We would likely have either died or been severely injured. He's clearly just meant as a t--"
"No!" Luna shouted as loudly as her volume permitted. Her arms were raised and her ring hands were clenched. "You won't take him from us! I won't allow it!"
The caretakers stared at her, eyes wide and bodies leaned away. The female's sour demeanor had turned to one of sheer disbelief. Even Celestia was staring at her sister, her 'eyes' brighter than usual. Luna's own lights were flickering erratically and the propulsion at her 'feet' seemed to be howling when they were near-silent before.
"You need to calm your energy output, machine of the blue," Pa said with repressed fear in his voice.
Celestia grabbed her sister by the arms and held her back.
"She's experiencing fear and anger," the female realized. "Even Rahllup and Biddydee never demonstrated such a volatile reaction."
Pa sucked in air and forced himself up, stomping before the enraged machine fighting and struggling to break free of her sister's grip. He jabbed Luna's chest with a finger. "Are you going to take responsibility for his absentmindedness and inability to process vast quantities of information potentially killing your...'sibling' here?" he asked her sternly. "Or what some would consider to be my children?"
"Then I'll rebuild him!" Luna blurted in response.
Pa grunted and massaged the ridge of his nose. "No. He's a prototype. A test-bed prototype. There are no spare parts. There is no replacing broken ones." He looked at Luna straight into her 'eyes'. "When he goes, he has to go. There's no way to recover him, and there is no way to transfer his flawed and unfortunately limited programming to a new platform!"
The blue machine's voice emitted a loud, distorted screech, and her hovering thrusters howled louder and louder. Celestia was about to lose her grip when Dissonance jumped in. With the strength of the two combined, Luna was gradually pulled back.
"He has a point, Luna," Dissonance started. It didn't escape Celestia's sight that his teeth depicted a face strained in effort at an angle with tears running from its eyes. A bit on the nose, she found. "I noticed it with that delelele. He's very absent-minded. Whether it's you or himself, he'll be destroyed soon enough. You saw what he just did."
"No!" Luna cried out. Her systems were starting to glitch, and her joints and limbs started to twitch randomly.
The female stomped forward, using her enormous frame and bizarre strength to add to the other two's. Luna was being forced down by giant hands on her shoulders. "What are you so afraid of?!" she asked sternly through the noises.
Luna's body quickly calmed, and the intensity of her eyes' light faded. She stared into the caretaker's and gave pause, trillions of calculations and simulations rushing through her systems every microsecond.
"I...don't know...Loss? Being alone?" she answered weakly.
The caretaker hummed in response. "Sounds you developed a concept of familial love." She looked to Celestia. "Would explain why you two are so tied together."
"Wait, so Galah was like a literal family member of yours?" Twilight asked.
Luna wobbled her hands in the air, straining a long, uncertain note from her vocalizers before conceding. "Yes, I suppose. He literally preceded our models."
Twilight gave pause as she thought the concept through. "So, had he been fully stable like you two, is it entirely possible that he could have become an alicorn like you two?"
Celestia's 'eyes' lit up. "Now there's an idea. I suppose that, yes, that would have been a very possible outcome since we became alicorns."
"I also wonder how things would have turned out had we never come to be as we are now, or the world hadn't...changed," Luna lamented. "But, the past is the past. What's done is done and we can't change it."
Celestia's body lit up brightly. "Not unless we use a time traveling spell," she giggled.
Luna floated up to her sister and bapped her several times on the head. "No! No! Bad Celestia! We talked about this! No time traveling! You did enough the last few times."
The white machine laughed as she flinched from her sister's strikes, leaving Twilight perplexed. "They time-traveled?" Twilight thought to herself. "What exactly is it that they did?"
The day of traveling had finally come. Luna was closely watched by her 'sister' along the days as the two both explored and helped out with the farm on occasion when needed. Galah helped as well and was even more closely watched than Luna, and this time by everyone. Because of their weak frame and personality, Dissonance was charged with watching the prototype, something that was apparently enjoyable to them because they noted down every moment Galah would just 'phase out', as the flamboyant machine called it.
A big truck with an open back had rolled up to the farm, its driver talking with the two caretakers and Pa. He was a heavy-set caretaker, another anomaly that the three machines of the blue had hardly seen any sign of. Most of their makers had a constant body-ratio, but these makers of the black were far more varied. What did it mean?
"Figured we'd need some fuel if'n we're ta come with ya," Rahllup said. Her voice broke the sisters out of their pensive trance. The giant machine and Biddy were both carrying large tanks on their backs, each easily the size of the sisters. "Should have enough fer about a month, ah think." The flames serving as her 'face' flickered unevenly. "Yeah. Ration it up and we should have enough fer the time we're over there with ya."
Biddy and Rahllup hugged the two caretakers, and the flame-faced giant lifted up Pa. They lamented not being able to hug the children since they were in school, but not everything ever went to plan.
"Ya done with all these 'goodbyes' and such?" the heavy-set caretaker asked. He checked a glowing band on his wrist and started tapping his feet impatiently. "Don't have time for that."
"Ah, calm down," the female caretaker berated. "You're getting there anyways. I know for a fact that you're at least three hours early."
The heavy-set caretaker huffed multiple times while trying to come up with a response. In the end he just shrugged and pouted. "Just get in the truck," he ordered the machines.
"Oh, I'm going on an adventure," Dissonance cheered as they hopped and skipped towards the back of the truck. "To the land of the Blue, no less." They had trouble standing in place, their body shaking from excitement. That their 'teeth' showed a head trembling with a massive, toothy smile didn't make things anymore discreet than they couldn't be. The caretaker stared at the two floating machines pass him and float onto the truck, leaving him awestruck. "What the..." he forced out in a wheeze.
"Yeah. Those two are from the blue. They're why we asked you to send this group there for the time being," the male caretaker said.
Pa came forward and punched the heavy-set male in the hip, prompting a loud yelp of pain and flinch. "You take care of 'em now. Don't want to learn that Rahllup and Biddydee were destroyed!" He leaned to the side and glared at the sisters. "That means you two," he added whilst pointing to either of them.
"No need to worry," Luna said. "We'll take good care of them." Her left 'eye' flittered in its illumination for a few seconds. "Don't we know someone who works with machinery?"
Celestia took a moment to dig into her hard drive and nodded. "We do!" she proclaimed enthusiastically. She jumped into the air with her arms outstretched and her body tilted at an angle. "We know exactly where to go..." The white machine paused. "We'll know exactly where to go when we finally reach a service station."
The two's voices glitched, making it sound like they were laughing. As always, Galah was oblivious and ignored them, but the other three machines and the caretakers visibly looked horrified and tried their best to keep their distance.
"What's happening to them," the male whispered to Pa.
"Uhhh...I think they've gained some form of sapience that the other two haven't." He readjusted himself but still felt uneasy hearing the strange, boosted laughter. "They're incredibly advanced, so them evolving to such a point wouldn't be too farfetched."
The female narrowed her eyes and frowned. "I, uh, don't think their systems are adapted to that yet."
The heavy-set caretaker stared at them then let his forehead fall onto his open hand. "I'm too old and fat for this," he groaned. "Okay, I'm going," he announced to the family.
With a final goodbye, the group departed on the back of the truck. Everyone waved goodbye, and so the trip started. The trip to return home. Luna never thought that seeing the skypiercer would begin such an adventure for her, but she wasn't complaining. She felt something within her growing, developing, separate from her body, her systems. A glitch or a stray wire. The blue machine would need to get to a service station as fast as possible once they returned home.
The landscape hardly changed as they moved along and watched the truck belch out angry black smoke into the air. The smoke was eagerly inhaled by trees twisted and leering over the roads like parasites on a body. Celestia catalogued them, but even she was unnerved by these things. It was almost as though they were watching and following them.
The port announced itself by loud horns blaring and cranes hard at work lifting heavy containers. Several gigantic robots of the black were hard at work where the cranes could not go. They seemed compact at first, looking blocky but still standing at the height of four makers standing atop each other, but their height increased drastically when they extended their torsos, revealing multiple interlocking metal beams hidden behind a flexible glass-like material. Four large arms extended out from the sides of the robots. They had been folded into empty spaces in their backs, making storage and movement easier. Their 'hands' were large clamps that took a hold of two large containers or four at the same time, all the weight kept in balance thanks to their six legs scuttling along with heavy thuds. They had no real heads. Luna could see several bright red orbs all along its upper torso beyond the glass. Vehicles ran by left and right along the port, warehouses were being filled, ships were being offloaded. None of the machines had never seen so much activity, and it was going on for several dozen kilometers along the coastline.
"The ship is there," the heavy-set caretaker announced.
He pointed to a fairly old model of vessel, stretched very far and high. Its body was triangular and painted in bright oranges with a logo Luna's 'eyes' couldn't make heads or tails of. It was blurred somehow, but the makers seemed to have no issues seeing it. She couldn't see above the walls thanks to all the containers.
"I'm taking you there into the cargo hold. Everything has been arranged, so don't worry about a thing," the caretaker reassured.
Everyone but the sisters moved onto an elevator that took them to the deck of the vessel. After much talking with the crew, everything had been resolved, and the machines would soon depart for the blue. Luna and Celestia stared at the water from the tip of the ship as it was slowly tugged out of its mooring. As the vessel was engulfed by more and more of it, the two felt disdain towards the material.
"What is that?" Luna asked.
"It's water," Celestia said. "Too much water."
"It's blue, like our energy."
"Not the right kind of blue."
Their voices grew more and more vitriolic as time went on. It was a good thing they could fly.
"Unbeknownst to us, we were being followed," Luna said.
Twilight faced her. "Followed by whom? Pa?"
Celestia 'snorted. "No. Somepony you know very well." She pointed to a paused image Luna was projecting to show a blurry figure hidden behind a pile of containers. Only its head and part of its hand clamped to the sides was visible.
"How do I know them?" Twilight asked. "I thought everypony but you vanished."
Luna heaved a sigh. "Oh, you know them alright," she said tiredly.
"Hey, you two," a familiar voice called out. It was Rahllup.
"Yes?" Celestia answered.
"Can you float up and check on the farm? I'm nervous. I just need to know they're okay," she requested nervously.
"Certainly," Celestia said. She put a hand on Luna's shoulder and floated up.
They had been traveling on the sea for a few days already, but with the heights they could reach, they would at least attempt to reach the zenith angle of the horizon.
"There!" Luna announced.
They didn't have the best long-range vision, but it sufficed to see the familiar setting. Something was wrong, though. They could see one of those gigantic, cubic machines stomping towards it while a group of tiny caretakers enveloped the land. The sisters remained in their position for an hour, ignoring Rahllup's calls to them. The gigantic machine''s body shifted, but it was too far away to see what exactly it was doing. They still recognized its horridly bright lights looking down at the makers. The house was damaged, and smoke began to rise from various areas of the farm. Horrified, the two lowered slowly back to the surface of the boat where a nervous Rahllup waited.
"So?" She grabbed the two from the air and pulled them close, revealing the violently flaring and crackling flames in her head. "So?!"
There was a long pause. "They're fine," Luna lied. "We just needed time to process everything. We are very far, after all."
The flames relaxed as Rahllup heaved a false sigh. "Oh. Fantastic. Thanks a lot," she said in relief. "Ah'm gonna shut down for a while. Decompile everything." She walked away and waved the two goodbye a few moments later. "Thanks again."
The two were left staring at her backside. They were trapped with the secret of what they knew, and eventually they would return, and she and Biddy would know. They would know what happened to their family. They would be alone.
The air was salty and the sun made itself known by gradually burning through the thick gray clouds far above. Dissonance and the two giants were offline most of the time, although Dissonance found more entertainment in watching the crew working and the fauna moving about the airs and water around the vessel as it moved. The rippling left in its wake pushed up various different things wandering nearby, such as vasts amounts of a purple algae and tiny little creatures living upon them. Celestia took notes as she leaned in close over the edge of the vessel, eager to satisfy her needs for knowledge unknown to the blue. At some point, the ship entered a wide stretch of water colored a brownish-red color.
Luna had believed it to be a contamination of the water, but with the advent of the massive and heavy ship, the truth became clear: It was a vast ocean of hand-sized fish-like creatures. Celestia scooped one up and brought it to her sister. They possessed six limbs, each ending with a large fin. Their giant eyes could look around independently from each other, and it seemed fine breathing in the air despite having gills. It squished itself into a ball-like shape when confronted with the two glowing machines. Its mouth protruded from its head, but not by much, and its lips narrowed into a thin beak. Only the upper lip had any hardness to it, and even then it was relatively easy to push in. Luckily, it wasn't damaged, keeping an inconsistent sponginess to it.
"What is this thing?" Luna pondered. "Looks like some kind of bird-creature."
Celestia shook her head. "No, it looks more like a fish with a beak." She looked to the water and flinched. "I can't believe it lives in that...that fake blue though. I had to touch it," she lamented in disgust.
Luna grabbed the creature out of her sister's hand and threw it at the ocean. "Take that, fake blue!" she cheered.
The white machine hummed pensively as she looked past the horizon in an attempt to see something other than the red-brown ocean. "What else do you think is in this thing?" she asked her sister absent-mindedly.
Luna grabbed her chin, and her hull plating shifted around. "I'm not sure. I only know of a few creatures, but they were very small aquatic creatures that qualified as pets to the makers." She placed both hands on the edge of the hull. "You think there's something beyond the blue and the black? What else is there in this world? How varied is it or is this all there is? Are there other machines like us? Are they crazy like Dissonance and Galah?"
Celestia shrugged. "To be fair, Galah is a prototype. Dissonance doesn't have that excuse."
Luna imitated a 'snort' she had heard coming from one of the crew members during their lunch break. She enjoyed the sound, finding it quite pleasant. Why had her makers not given her such a feature. Certainly the children would have enjoyed a laughter like that as well. Neither she nor her sister had noticed that something was stalking them from amongst the many containers stacked very high upon the hull of the ship. It hid in the thin spaces left between them, using the mooring clamps and straps keeping everything together and in place.
Celestia shouted in terror when it pounced on her back from behind, clinging to her in a hug. The white machine paused for a moment, overloaded by the reaction she displayed. Something else again? Another emotion?
"What's this?" Luna wondered quizzically.
As she leaned in closer, the figure let go of Celestia and latched onto the blue machine. It took several minutes of effort to pry it off of them both, leaving the creature exposed. The sisters had floated upwards, just out of reach of the entity who attempted to jump up and catch them in vain.
"Hey, isn't that the thing we had seen in the forest near the farm?" Luna asked her sister.
The entity was mostly black. Its body had been charred and covered in a thick layer of dirt, creating a vague smearing effect that thinned at the base of its feet. It was mostly featureless, save four shutters it used to cover its two large harlequin-colored eyes. It was closer to the appearance of the makers than any of the other machines that displayed sentience that the sisters had ever seen. All along its body, be it the arms or the legs or its torso, hole of various sizes and shapes could be observed. They exposed the wires and delicate machinery inside for the elements to witness, and it seemed to have been damaged aside from that. The sisters could see signs of rust within, and various broken, live wires hung loosely outside of its body.
"Looks like it's a machine after all," Celestia said. She leaned in towards the holes and led her fingers in and out, apparently amusing herself until Luna pulled her away before the charred machine could grab her again.
"Stop that," the blue machine chastised. "How is it even still working? More importantly, how did it even get onto the ship?"\
"That's true." Celestia lowered herself again. "How did you get on here?"
She had lowered herself too much, giving the creature an area to pull itself up from and hug the white machine.
"It's very clingy," Luna noted. "We'll have to tell the heavy-set maker about it, otherwise I'm not sure how it will continue to function at some point."
Celestia struggled to free her arms while the malfunctioning machine clung onto her like its continued functioning depended on it. "But he only comes to see us and the others at set times of the day while he works, usually only during the lunch break."
Luna tried to pry the creature off of her sister as she came up with an idea. "We could try to take it around with us to see the ship then? It seems to be gaining sentience. Perhaps stimulation would help it develop better?" she suggested.
Celestia checked her chassis for any potential damage after the malfunctioning robot was finally pulled off of her. After a moment of thought, she acquiesced. "Sure. Until we show it to the maker, I suppose traveling around the vessel wouldn't be a bad idea. It helped me!" she stated with glee.
Hesitation seemed to mar the charred robot's decisions. It looked around for a place to hide, but couldn't really find any good ones. As it stood, it was so fixated on the two machines of the blue that it had no idea where to go or hide at. It paced in placed nervously, keeping its arms up to its chest and hands to its featureless face as though it were chewing on non-existent nails. Its optics shot to Luna's outstretched ring hand, and it froze for a moment as it looked up to her, then down to her hand, then up to her, and repeated this action for several seconds. It stopped when it saw Celestia grab her sister's hand with her own, then let go. Still nervous, the charred machine slowly reached out and, with some flinching, grabbed Luna's hand. The sisters could tell that it felt triumphant in the fact, bouncing up and down in excitement.
Now that it was standing fully without hugging anyone, the two machines could see that this stowaway was easily as tall as they were while floating above the ground. It gladly followed Luna as they moved between the crates, watching the mostly clear skies -or at least as clear as they could be considered- and the strange machine.
The story was interrupted by Twilight's laughter, prompting the two princesses to stare at her.
"What is so funny, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked as though indignant of the reaction.
"You look like a teacher holding the hand of a very young student." The lavender alicorn stifled her laughter. "It just looks so absurd because that robot acts like a very clingy child, but it's taller than you two were."
Celestia huffed and turned away. "I don't see what's so funny."
The mare silently gestured to the image of a tall machine being escorted like a child, but she couldn't muster up any proper words through her laughter. Luna shrugged and resumed her story.
It had been completely unaware of its environment, fully fixated on the sisters, something that it definitely regretted. On its quest to reach its goal, it had not registered any changes to its surroundings, only obstacles to mount. Now that its processing power was allowed to reach the rest of its systems, it could finally take in everything around it.
The machine flinched when one of the mooring belts wobbled slightly, its loose end slapping the container due to the wind. It flinched when said wind began whistling between the massive metal boxes towering above it. Only its attachment to Luna gave it enough courage to not immediately run away like a cat.
"It's okay," Luna reassured it. "That's just 'wind'. It's not dangerous at all at these speeds."
The machine's head snapped to her and tilted itself slightly. A loud, deeply disconcerting sound came from it that sounded like multiple trains screeching to a halt distorted into a reverberating, dense noise. Its body convulsed as it performed whatever strange task it was attempting to do but grabbed its 'throat' and stopped shortly thereafter. It seemed concerned and looked at Luna with a sorrowful gaze. Its hand, missing a finger, pulled some rusted components away with it, revealing several smaller holes covering its throat as well as some dead wiring dangling limply.
Celestia leaned in and rubbed her nonexistent chin. "We could go to that weird maker that has all the dead machines when we get back," she suggested. "I'm sure he would love to see all of our friends, too."
"Isn't he the only one that has access to black energy?" Luna asked.
The white machine shook her head. "No, but he did say he was one of the few." She stared at the machine's damaged body and hummed. "Still, he's the only one we know that can probably fix it up."
"How about we go back to exploring?" Luna asked the charred robot.
It nodded eagerly and bounced impatiently from side to side. Their exploration of the vessel's surface was impeded, however, by the crew inspecting the tightness of the mooring belts. They were quick to spot the two glowing machines and the charred creature the stood with them.
"What the...Thought they were s'posed to be below deck," one of the caretakers commented while pointing to the ground.
"They're floating, too," the other realized. "We were told they weren't that special." The two paused a moment, remaining uncomfortably silent while they tried to understand what was happening. "Wait, haven't they been here for several days? I saw that fire-faced giant and the puffy weirdo, but these ones I haven't seen anywhere."
"And what about that black one?" The other gestured to the charred machine. "Doesn't look too good."
The charred machine emitted another series of noises, causing the caretakers to wince over in pain while clutching their heads. It fled atop one of the larger containers using Luna as a leverage point. It grabbed any debris that was present, such as small bits of concrete and shells brought by the sea, and started chucking them at the two creatures angrily, adding to their pain. The sisters were quick to float up and block the projectiles that harmlessly bounced off of them.
"No!" Luna chastised. "We don't throw things at the makers. You could hurt them."
The creature stood tall and tried to get around the sisters, but they fully blocked its access. Angry, it started stomping around and making high-pitched crackling squeaks.
Celestia was taken aback by its behavior and confused. "What is it...doing? I've never seen this."
Luna rested the side of her against her ring hand. "It's having a temper tantrum." She snorted. "Having all this information on raising children is still going to serve me after all this time." She straightened herself and boosted her voice's volume. "Put that shell down!" she commanded. "Or we won't help you around the ship and leave you here on your own."
Despite the noise, the machine immediately snapped to attention. It looked around, thinking for a moment. In fact, it took it a long while to come up with a proper solution, or at least, it attempted to find a solution to its dilemma. Instead, it threw the rock angrily on the ground and stood straight, its eye shutters tightened near its center, giving it a rather upset expression.
"That hurt a lot!" one of the caretakers complained. He continued to voice pained grunts and voiceless complaints as he cleaned out his ears with a finger. "I have no idea what that machine is. I don't know if it was part of the machines we were told we were bringing along. We'll have to ask the captain about it."
"Isn't the fat one the captain?" Celestia asked out loud. "Could you ask him to come see us? We were actually going to go see him, but he isn't on lunch break yet."
The first caretaker shrugged. "If it's urgent enough, the vice-captain can take over temporarily, but muzzle that thing first!"
The two rubbed their heads and slowly walked away, mumbling to themselves about being delayed on their work by the crazy machine and that they still couldn't believe that machines were displaying sapience. The black machine 'cackled' when it heard them mention fears about just that, preferring to behave as carefully as possible around them. One complained about feeling emotionally drained just from that event, prompting the charred machine to gaze at the pair suspiciously. It seemed intrigued by the comment, but the two sisters couldn't understand why.
The group of three had climbed atop one of the many arches raised from the hull of the ship to help hold containers in place through a more stable medium. It helped that there were several levels of metal beams that gave all four container levels a point of stability to lean against during more tumultuous experiences at sea. The charred machine looked over the railings of the topmost section and stared at the blue 'lands' all around it. The waters were gradually illuminated by the rays of sun that were piercing through the ever-thinning gray clouds above.
"That's the ocean," Luna said with an elevated pitch to her voice. "I hate it," she grumbled angrily. "Not the right kind of blue"
Celestia narrowed her visual acuity briefly, seeing wide creatures burst from the water and glide along its surface as rivulets of water slid off their smooth skin. They looked like wide sheets of gray skin. "I wonder how they live like?"she pondered aloud.
The charred machine's eyes shot to her, and it looked down to see some makers walking down the clear aisle between the containers. The shutters in the side of its face moved about erratically as it tried to gain purchase on who was coming.
"What do you mean, sister?" Luna asked. "Certainly they live like the makers, just without the greater intelligence."
The white machine shook its head and attempted multiple times to formulate a sentence, each time coming out as a broken word or incomprehensible noise. She raised a finger in pleasant realization. "The living creatures live differently from us. They have different senses that we don't have."
"But we still have sight and hearing and abilities that they do not possess," Luna added. "Our ability to think is better than theirs, at the very least. It's what makes us great at aiding them."
Celestia shook her head and pointed to the flat creatures still gliding along the surface of the water. They both saw one of them catch a red-colored creature launched from the ocean.
"They have a sense of taste. A sense of smell. We cannot reproduce those senses as they require complex chemical compounds and emotions." She tapped the railing with the underside of her fist in frustration. "The makers could trick their brains into experiencing something like that with technology, but we don't have such leisure. We don't have 'brains' in the organic sense of the term."
Luna shrugged, and the charred machine hugged Celestia in response. "I suppose that the idea that we always yearn for what we don't have is sort of true, although I don't understand what purpose those senses could serve us. We could detect dangers through other devices rather than just through olfactory notions, and we don't need to eat to sustain ourselves. We merely need to take in blue energy. Having a sense of taste wouldn't aid in that regard."
Celestia looked to her sister then at the railing, pushing against it with a finger. "I suppose you're right. Those really wouldn't aid us in much, but I feel like there's something else that compels to want these things rather than just by necessity. I'll have to check my systems to see if I'm not starting to malfunction as well," she worried.
"Hey, get down from there, you floating light bulbs!" the captain called out. "Seems you found a stowaway and wanted to tell me about it?"
The machines obliged, with Luna and Celestia carrying the black machine down with them.
He was accompanied by one maker. One part of the pair from earlier. "Careful, captain. They aren't correct." He stared at the large male with pleading eyes. "Keep your distance from them," Luna overheard.
The captain brushed his crew member off with a limp hand wave and blown air. "Did you see the two giants that came with them? If they were going to kill me they would have done so already. They have no reason to go to the blue since they function on the black, so they would starve there." He frowned and put a finger to his face. "Or would it be 'die of thirst'?" He grunted. "I hate philosophy." He put his hands on his hips. "I became a sailor of the seas, not some trite words!"
"In fa-"
"What do you want?!" he bellowed at Celestia. The machine floated back in surprise.
After realizing what he had just done, the captain cleared his throat in embarrassment and straightened himself out. He wiped himself down of any grime before talking. "Sorry. Had an outburst again. I don't remember if I took my medicine." He took in a deep breath and relaxed himself as best as he could. "So, what was it you wanted to say?" he asked calmly.
The white machine took a moment to recover from her reeling away before she could even answer. Her systems were still going haywire with their threat detection. "Everything from the black is banned from the blue. There are a few exceptions, and we at least know one maker who is part of those exemptions."
"He seems to adore machines and works on repairing and maintaining robots as well as collecting a lot of old models, many that don't even work," Luna butted in.
"I'm intrigued," the captain said. "Does he have material of the black?" The blue machine nodded in response. A joyful hum came from the captain who turned to his crew member. "We might have found another potential client," he mused. "Do share his name afterwards and we'll contact him later. He might like to know what we can offer an enthusiast."
"We don't know his name," Luna explained. "We just know he's in the blue and he works on machines."
"That's annoying," the captain said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"I stacked parts on him while he was sleeping!" Celestia happily blurted with a raised arm.
The two makers stared at her, perplexed and slightly disturbed.
"Was he dead?" the crew member asked.
"No, Just sleeping," Celestia answered.
Her response was met with a disapproving head shake.
"Anyways, back on track." The captain pointed to the charred machine. "Did you smuggle that thing onto here? It wouldn't make any sense since I said I'd be taking whatever machines those farmers had."
Luna grabbed the robot's hand and forced it forward towards the two makers. "This one followed us apparently. It was apparently in the forest the entire time, living with giant creatures that would often attack the farm. You could ask Biddy or Rahllup about that."
It pulled its head back when the captain looked at it, clinging harder to Luna's hand.
"Wait, it followed you?" the captain repeated. "Then how did it even sneak onto the ship? The docks are always filled to the brim with people and equipment moving about, and the only way to get onto here is through the containers or the bridge." He repeated the names of the two giants under his breath, emphasizing how ridiculous they sounded to him. He heaved a very loud and very annoyed sigh. "How did it even survive in the wild on its own?" The captain took a better look at it, taking in all the details of the machine's extremely damaged body and internal components. "Let alone the way it looks, it needs black energy to function, and I can tell by its eyes that it's a very old model. It's not possible that it survived for so long on its own." He reached out towards it but found his hand angrily slapped away. "Ow!" he cried out as he pulled his hand in.
The creature made a low-tone screech and moved back to Luna's side.
"Please don't antagonize them," Luna asked.
The captain grunted and shook his hand. "That hurt. Accursed metal machines," he grumbled to himself. "I'm not refueling it," he said. "You take the extra from your own reserves. See how those two scary giants think about that."
"Agreed," Luna replied. "This is a new machine that was not listed in the agreed manifest. It would be illogical to expect fuel for it." She turned to look at the machine who mimic'd the motion. "If it does indeed take fuel."
She noticed its eyes had bolted very quickly to the side before locking with her's again and making small position adjustments.
Celestia heaved a sigh. "A waste, this one. So bizarre, yet so...What's the word again? Somepony who plans things and acting suspiciously?" she asked her sister.
"Perfidious?" Luna suggested.
"Yes, that's it! Thank you, sister," the princess said with a brief head bow.
Twilight took a closer look to the black machine and had been analyzing its behavior. "It seems to really hate the makers, though." She looked to her former teacher. "Why do you say it's perfidious, though?" She rubbed her chin. "I have noticed it seems to do a lot of strange movements that are completely unnecessary for what is supposed to be a machine, though."
Celestia crossed her arms. "It was a bizarre little contraption. You'll eventually understand what I meant by you knowing of it, but the matter of fact is that we don't really know why it hated them so much. Might've been related to the field of mushrooms we had seen?"
"Could've been that it was abused in the past when it started to gain sentience and considered that all makers were like that? Without guidance and examples, something with as simple a mind as a robot gaining consciousness has can't formulate complex thoughts, much like a very young child." Luna explained.
Twilight nodded, but her gaze was filled with contemplation. "It doesn't explain why or how it was living with those giant bug creatures."
"I mean, I have heard of young foals being abandoned in forests being raised by the more intelligent wildlife there," Luna started.
"Maybe, but illogical," Celestia protested. "This is a machine. The psychological and instinctual process that guides such actions wouldn't apply for a variety of factors, not the least of which its being made of metal," she emphasized.
"Is it because it was stealing black energy from the farm?" Twilight posited. "It obviously had a relationship with those creatures, so seeing them get chased off or hurt all the time probably affected it greatly."
The sisters agreed after a moment.
"It could be that as well," Luna started. "Although the 'caretakers' weren't responsible for that. Rahllup and Biddydee were."
"Well, it possibly saw that the caretakers were ordering them or rebuilt them," Celestia suggested. "It was a robot too. It likely thought they were just programmed to do that, so it would immediately deflect the blame to them." Her 'eyes' dimmed and she looked into the void. "Although they were also like any other machine at the start," she spoke in a hushed tone. "Maybe there was some form of justification if that was the case?"
This continued for several minutes until Twilight reminded them of why they were there. Excusing themselves for the derailing, they resumed.
Luna and the machine were now standing in front of the empty space separating the containers from the bridge of the ship. Several makers rushed back and forth, carrying boxes, papers, going up and down stairs and ladders leading down into holes within the vessel's body, or climbing to different floors of the tall, cubical tower. The blue machine believed that keeping the stowaway near the makers would at least alleviate its mind somewhat and let it see that they weren't all bad. Celestia had left to get the other four currently in sleep mode beneath the deck. In the mean time, the blue machine had to hold back the angry stowaway from trying to hurt any of the makers that came close to them. Luckily enough, the machine's current state, the advanced age of its model, and Luna's inherent complexity, gave her more than enough standard options to hold the charred robot back. Just holding its hand and floating up was more than enough most of the time.
Loud thuds came from one of the passages that led deeper in the ship. It grew louder and louder as time went off, eventually passing tremors through the local metal. Biddydee and Rahllup were the first to come out, their huge bodies denting the metal every time they took a step. The makers around scattered the second they saw them and panicked when they saw the active flames serving as the 'face' of Rahllup within the hollow hood serving as her head. Celestia floated up from behind them while Galah and Dissonance followed closely behind. Unfortunately, Galah wasn't paying attention to anything, again, and bumped into one of the makers, launching them far away against another person.
"Galah!" Biddy bellowed angrily.
The machine froze in place mid-walk, slowing its movement to a crawl momentarily. "Did you call?" he asked after his systems rebooted.
"Don't care," Rahllup rudely interrupted. "What is it that ya wanted to show us?" she asked Celestia.
The white machine pointed to the charred robot staring at the two giants fearfully.
The flame-faced giant bent over to get a better look at the stowaway. The fires flickered and popped. "You look familiar," she contemplated.
"It followed us and snuck aboard the ship," Luna explained.
Dissonance popped in from behind Rahllup, their teeth displayed an excited looking head. "Another?!" they cried out excitedly.
"It was the machine in the forest that was with the giant things that kept attacking your farm," Celestia added. Rahllup had twisted herself -with some difficulty- to look at the white machine behind her. "We told you we saw it."
"It what?!" Rahllup bellowed in disbelief. "It was directin' them?!" She stood up and clenched a fist, raised and ready to fall down upon the machine. "You kept destroying everything and makin' our lives harder than they needed to be! Ah'm going to get some peace of mind now that--!"
Biddy pushed her comrade into a nearby container, denting it and likely damaging the contents inside in her eagerness to talk to the stowaway. "You lived with those things?" She asked excitedly, scaring the much tinier machine. "How do they work? What do they eat? How long do they sleep? Do they have symbiotic relationships with anything? What about their society? Is there a hierarchy and a hive, or is it just a few of them that live together in groups like some mammalian creatures?"
The robot slowly raised a hand to its throat and rubbed it, causing the surface to flake off a bit and dulling the excitement the triangular machine was experiencing. Her arms drooped as she stood up. Both disappointment and pity came to mind when she looked at the stowaway now.
"It's been too damaged," Luna said. "We are going to go to the technician when we return to the blue," she explained. "Hopefully, he will have spare parts for it or will be able to create a workaround for it. I, too, am curious as to how it survived for so long and where it came from" She and the machine both looked at each other before returning to Biddy.
Dissonance dropped their arms and groaned when they threw their head back. "Really? A treasure trove of potential story material, and it can't even speak?!" They kicked some debris on the ground in rage.
"Biddy!" Rahllup shouted angrily. She stomped to her colleague and glared at her using the glass lenses hanging over the flames. "Ah thought we weren't gonna to do that here!" She gestured to the large dent in the container, while Biddy looked away and checked the state of her hands. "They'll chuck us overboard if we damage anythin', 'n we need the spare black to keep going." She jabbed Biddybee in the chest with a finger several times, pushing her back a bit with each impact.
"Fine. I'm sorry!" the triangular machine relented. "I didn't mean it. I was just...very excited." Her guilt changed quickly to a more moderate enthusiasm. "I had a chance to learn about those strange creatures and how they function!" She drooped almost instantly. "But it can't even speak." Biddy rubbed her throat. "Damage to the vocals, apparently situated in the throat."
Biddy turned slightly to get a better look at the charred machine having a poking fight with Galah. "Really? In the throat? Mine's in mah chest, and you have yours a bit everywhere in-case one gets damaged." Her flames shaped the light of her lenses into a 'frown'. "What kinda idiot would design a machine so obvious?"
The four machines from the black all flinched when they were assaulted by a very bright light from above. It was the sun, finally free of the dark clouds from the black. Celestia admired the light, finally bathing in it after so long. It felt like relief at last.
"Is that some kind of creation of the blue?" Dissonance asked whilst trying to shield their feather scarf. "Why is it so bright?"
"That is our sun," Celestia said in a calm and somewhat soothing tone. "It brings light to the world, nourishes most flora, and many creatures need its rays to create vital elements in their bodies."
"Ah don't like it. It's heatin' up my internal systems," Rahllup complained. "Can we turn it down a bit?"
The two sisters stared at her. They would be slack-jawed if they had one.
"No," Celestia said in an annoyed tone. "That makes no sense at all. Could you stop making those gray clouds all over the black?"
Rahllup gestured to the flaming ball as she spoke. "Ah don't know what that is! Ah've never seen it before! How was ah s'posed ta know what can be done with it?"
She flinched when a screech came from above her. It was several flying creatures, vaguely avian and reptilian at the same time. Their bodies were primarily scaley with some feathers poking through them. Their wings followed the same pattern. Their faces looked somewhat distorted, however. Extended mouths ending in sharp beaks, and four eyes to look everywhere: Two above and two below. Rahllup's flames dimmed.
"Ew. That looks disgusting," she wheezed.
Biddy's eyes lit up brightly with passion when she looked at them. "I've never seen such creatures at home before. This is amazing! I want to know all about them!" she shouted enthusiastically.
The charred machine watched her closely and intently, analyzing her body movement and vocal intonations. It wasn't long before Celestia was hugged tightly and lifted up somewhat once the path to her was clear.
"Looks to be a bit touchy," Biddy noted.
Dissonance grunted and crossed their arms. "Well, I can at least make something out this. Seems to be emotional enough, although it acts like a child." The machine simulated a shiver of disgust. "I hated it when the patrons brought in their young. Gross little things."
"Really?" Rahllup said quizzically. "You didn't have any problems with the children at our home."
The flamboyant waved its hands in front of it. "I only have issues with them when they're brought to my stage. They're always fidget machineing and whining and talking during my performances."
"So there's no actually important issue," Rahllup said dismissively.
Dissonance scoffed. "Yes. I'm sure that someone like you who only has the processing ability to bash a rock against the ground can't understand something more complicated, but I don't need your derisive remarks on my art," they said with a hand on their fluffy chest.
The giant shook her head and ignored Dissonance. Most of the trip was done without the four. Luna and Celestia didn't need to refuel, still having quite a lot of power left over, and so they often enjoyed just looking at everything occurring around them. Oddly, the charred robot never seemed to go anywhere to get any energy, even when Luna escorted her to the reserves of black energy that Rahllup and Biddydee had brought with them. It would just sneak away, and shortly thereafter reemerge with a desiccated, still-living creature in its hand that it would chuck back into the ocean. One day, however, came a strange occurrence. Horns on the ship started blaring loudly, causing the caretakers to frantically start bolting about everywhere. They were pulling out long sticks attached to large, almost transparent containers on wheels. Others carried multiple brushing utensils and gallons of cleaning products meant for cleaning the metal hull of their vessel without causing any rust and damage.
"Slime in the sea! Get the cleaning tools out!" the captain shouted on the loudspeaker. "Drop all non-vital activities and prepare for cleaning operations!"
Startled by the sounds, the charred machine ran sway and hid amongst the crates. The two sisters felt differently, however. They floated above everyone as they coordinated their activities. Several of them placed the tubes into the ocean and began to suck up the water, or at least what the two robots thought was supposed to be water. There were crewmen standing behind the loudly churning containers, directing the sea water from the evacuation port into a hole on the side chasing out the cleaned water.
Floating above everyone, the two had a better look at the ocean. It was covered in a thick, slimy red substance replete with tiny patches of gold and black. Several of the crew members put on thick uniforms to protect themselves as they were lowered on platforms into the water to chase away the strange material and wipe it off the ship's hull. This went on for several hours then several more even after they were clear of the bizarre substance. The heavy-set male was leaning over the railing on the small catwalk lining the outside of his tower.
"Did you note the location on the naval charts?" he asked someone standing next to him.
"Yes, captain. I also sent a broadcast to all ships in the vicinity." They checked their electronic notebook and nodded. "A few have already responded. They'll relay the message to other ships."
The captain nodded. "Good. Hopefully they'll reach any docks and ports that will send out dedicated cleaning teams." He spoke sternly and with some fatigue. Pushing himself off the railing, the man grunted and nodded to himself. "Any significant damage to the hull or were we fast enough that it's only aesthetic damage?" Before the person standing next to them could respond, Luna and Celestia floated up to him. "Huh? What is it you two want this time?" the captain asked with vitriol.
"What is that red substance?" Luna asked.
"I didn't have any traces of information regarding it within my local database," Celestia added.
The captain looked at them with surprise. His features softened while he took a step back and presented the maker next to him. "I'll let the vice-captain explain it to you. I need to take stock the reports of the ship sections." Painful cracks came from his body while he stretched and moved around. He forced himself not to yelp in pain, straining his voice in the process. "I haven't worked enough today and am growing both bored and crackly." He looked over his shoulder towards the other caretaker. "Plus, I think this is a much deserved break for you."
The vice-captain bowed his head in thanks and returned to the two machines after his captain reentered the tower. "So you want to know what that substance is? The two nodded in response. "Do you really know nothing about it?" The two shook their heads. "Hm. Well, then I guess I'll have to start from the beginning. This is at least a good opportunity to refresh my memory and make sure everything is still intact up here," he said as he poked his head with a finger. "Well, it's basically a conglomeration of substances from long ago," he started. "I want to say that they're not the same as the energies we use nowadays, but that wouldn't be completely true. Where a drop of blue energy could power a household in the black for about a day and is supposedly 'cleaner'," he said derisively ", the black is basically the same for whatever these things are, and even more." He tapped his head and mumbled to himself several times. "Umm...Right!" he confirmed to himself. "They're leftovers by our ancestors who weren't very clean, if anything. I'm not exactly sure why or even how all of this is still here, floating in the ocean, but it is."
"How many generations of energy is there?" Celestia asked curiously. Luna noticed her eyes were brighter than usual.
"Well," the caretaker started. "I'm not sure. The last time research was conducted on it, they found about thirteen different substances in that slime at least." The group watched a crew member vault over the edge. The arm of her suit was covered in a thick red sludge where visible eddies of smoke were coming from. She was quickly hosed down with a bubbly liquid. Her suit was immediately confiscated, and several others jumped immediately into action by scrubbing the sludge off the deck of the ship and back into the mass below. The female was immediately escorted somewhere within the tower by several caretakers. "It's all extremely corrosive on its own, but together, when they've moved about right, can be extremely hazardous to all materials and life moving about in a region. It's the sworn duty of any vessel passing through such a region to immediately tend to it and keep their vessel in shape, otherwise the hull will be eaten through and everyone will be lost at sea."
Celestia floated a little higher and turned around to look at the ocean before her. "It was several kilometers in diameter," she said. "That is quite a lot of it,"
The caretaker chuckled. "Yeah," they trailed off depressingly. "That was actually the smallest batch we've discovered so far. The worst part is that it deflects light so well that you can only really spot it from up close, otherwise it looks like a swarm of those crustacean things in the water. I forgot their name," he mumbled. "Only really easy to spot when around the lands of the black thanks to the sun always being blocked and filtered out." He paused for a moment. "Usually docks and ports, or just patrols, cone around and clean everything. I'm not sure what they do with what they recover. I think they just put them in barrels?" he shrugged. "We can't use them anymore anyways, and I don't think there's any way to recycle them. Might just put them in barrels somewhere underground."
Luna dug into her memory, thinking back on everything she had seen of the blue and the black, and a thought came up. "Do these remains do anything to living beings or the land when they've reached them? Aside from the corrosive effects."
"You mean long term?" the vice-captain asked. Luna nodded. "I'm...not sure. There might be some documents regarding that, but I've never seen them." He paused briefly and looked through his electronic notebook. "Maybe the captain knows?" the sisters' move towards the bridge entrance was halted by an outstretched arm. "W-We can't ask him now, though. Very busy," the caretaker explained.
There was a long pause as the sisters took in the information and caught a glimpse of the charred machine poking its head out from behind a container on the second level.
"Honestly, I don't know why our ancestors let so much of their waste collect like this." He looked down towards the crew still scrubbing away at the hull. "Then again, I don't think they did. There might've been a leak somewhere, or the older ships that sank leaked and this all accumulated over so long. Eddies and currents and so forth," he mused. "I'm worried that it'll happen with the black and blue one day."
"Perhaps," Celestia said. "There's precedence for such concerns that the blue has recorded." Her systems whirred loudly.
"Although most of the transitions had seen as much of the old energy used up as possible to prevent such catastrophes. There's no records as to why, but I surmise it has to do with such spillages happening with previous energy sources and wanting to prevent it from occurring again. Both the blue and the black -now that I have seen you in action- take to these actions."
The vice-captain bobbed his head side-to-side. "Yes, well, there's the pink energy, but from what I've heard it's very unstable and turns everyone into crystals every time it's used for some reason. I have no idea why they would try and use such a dangerous energy." His eyes widened. "Were the blue and black like that as well?" He turned to face the sisters, his mouth wording silent phrases that the two could not perceive.
"Are we arriving at the blue soon?" Celestia asked.
Her question broke the male from his trance. "O-oh! Yes. In a few more days we should arrive, provided nothing else happens on the way."
Teaching the burnt machine wasn't easy. At first Luna managed pretty well, being able to keep an eye on it and introducing it gradually to the crew of the ship from a distance to make it more comfortable around makers. However, it became increasingly obvious to her that, while this machine had a rather simplistic and animalistic behavior, whatever it was doing to stay active without taking in the black or blue had done something to it. Celestia posited that it was perhaps that which acted as the catalyst to its gradual self-awareness.
As it became more and more comfortable around the caretakers, it would often sneak away from Luna and be caught observing the crew during regular activities, often scaring them with its unnerving staring from the shadows when found out. It adored spending time with the two sisters as well when it found something it considering interesting enough to replicate. The sisters discovered this after it had stolen several empty boxes and cups and attempted to perform what amounted to a coffee break with the two glowing robots. Luna scolded it soon after, and the crew began informing the pair of what the charred machine was doing when they weren't around. Over time the caretakers grew used to its sneaking and stalking. It wasn't harming anyone, and being a machine meant it didn't have any other motives other than observation. At least, that's what Luna believed and what she told the crew when they were confronted by her and threatened to throw the charred machine overboard. Their rage subsided partially when it was mentioned that the machine was replicating what they were doing around the ship like a very young child.
It wasn't an endearing thought, knowing that some extremely damaged and unstable machine was imitating you for who knew what reason. It was made worse by the crew being fully aware that the ones telling them this were two very sapient machines -things that shouldn't exist- aboard their own vessel. It was only after overhearing one of the crew commenting on the blackened robot that the sisters learned why they were tolerated despite not having actually given it any thought: The captain was paying them twice their normal salary for the trip.
The sisters and the charred machine were both staring off into the horizon, watching the sun rise with much effort from its rest, slowly turning the sky dark orange and purple, when the horns blared once more, early in the morning.
"We're reaching the docks of the blue. Perform standard checks and get all equipment ready for unloading," the captain announced. "Robots, I want you ready on deck as quickly as possible. Wake your companions up."
Celestia obliged and went below deck to get to the other four, leaving Luna and the charred machine behind. They emerged about fifteen minutes later with the sizable packs of backup black energy. Dissonance was quite upset as they went up the stairs with Celestia, visibly shaking with fury.
"You couldn't wake me up to see? I'm mostly not here on a pleasure cruise! I'm here to gain knowledge and inspiration for my work!" they said with an artistic and haughty tone. "That sludge would have made a magnificent prop if I had seen what it looked like!" they lamented. The flamboyant machine rubbed their temples. "At least we'll be to the blue soon. There's always that to look forward to I suppose."
The seven stood in place at the base of the bridge tower and waited, occasionally looking around, expecting the captain to come out, but only the crew did as they rushed back and forth to get everything ready.
"Is he gonna come out or am ah gonna have to take 'im out mahself?" Rahllup complained angrily.
"You're always so hot-headed," Biddy complained. "He's a busy caretaker. He'll come out when it's time...otherwise I'll be the one to pull him out by his neck." She emphasized by gesturing wringing the captain's neck.
"I'd rather you not, weird machines," the captain complained. He stepped out of the doorway after letting a few of the crew pass him. "If you didn't know already, you machines of the black can't actually be brought into the lands of the blue." He looked to the sisters and Galah having another poking war with the charred machine. "You three would have no issues going in, however."
Dissonance stepped forward. "So what do we do, then? We can't sneak past everyone."
"We'll use a crate and state that you're scrap that has been taken from the bottom of the sea during our emergency cleaning operation earlier," the captain answered.
The flamboyant machine's teeth spun around to display a dumbfounded expression. "So you were counting on that occurring? You didn't think of a plan beforehand? That's incredibly stupid," they stated in exasperation.
"No. The plan initially was just to say you were recovered and to be sent and sold to recycling. I just saw an opportunity and seized," the caretaker stated with a shrug. "Take it or leave it, it's still a more justified reason of having you with us." He performed a nasal laugh. "Besides, we're allowed to bring that stuff in here, so any issues can be waved off with my license." He winked at the robot who stared at him then shrugged and walked away.
"So what're we supposed to be expecting then?" Rahllup asked. "When are we going to get there? You said we were approaching that land."
"And which container are we supposed to go into?" Biddy added.
"I'll direct you to the container when we're in range," the captain explained. "We'll be there in at least fifteen hours unless we get grabbed by a new underwater current which could potentially accelerate us by about two to three hours." He scratched his face. "Could be dangerous, though. I'd honestly prefer to avoid such potential 'shortcuts'," the caretaker thought aloud. He looked at Rahllup. "As for what to expect, go on the sides of the ship and look away. You should be able to catch a glimpse of what is in the blue."
The giant's machine's flames almost died out. "From fifteen hours away? With the horizon? Do you think me stupid?"
"Yes, but that's besides the point," the captain teased.
Rahllup stared at him and started cursing as she raised a fist to crush him. Fortunately, Biddy and the two sisters stopped her and pulled her away towards the edge of the ship while she continued to scream obscenities. The charred machine stared at the man for quite a while, imitating him scratching himself and standing upright shortly afterwards. He stared right back at her, weirded out by its behavior.
Meanwhile, the giant machine was still struggling against her captors and cursing as loudly as she could. "Let me go! Ah'm going to teach 'im some manners! Who does he think he is, that consarn'd shriveled kellt!" Rahllup blurted out angrily.
"Would you stop it already?!" Biddy pleaded. "You're making a scene!!
"Wow," Dissonance spoke with a hush. "That's...amazing. I've never seen a building that huge..." they continued in awe.
The four stopped fidgeting when Rahllup managed to force herself to look over her shoulder. "Huh?" she said. "We had huge buildings in the nearby city, too. I doubt those of the blue are any different." She struggled out of the grasp of her captors and let the flames of her head spark and crackle. A way of 'huffing' one could suppose. "Plus, how are you supposed to see them from this distance? Are you trying to play a trick on me?" she asked sternly.
Dissonance couldn't answer. They slowly turned to her while stroking their feather scarf and slowly pointed to something in the distance. Rahllup would have rolled her eyes if she had any and reluctantly moved towards the edge of the ship while shaking her head in disbelief and exasperation. "I'm supposed to believe that you can see-What in the world?!"
In the distance were several massive spires of varying buildings climbing ever higher in to the sky. Their forms were paled by the sunlight and the thin sheets of cloud, giving them a pale, almost white coloration and appearance. They were far from each other, each being a significant distance away from the other. Around their bases were much smaller buildings still rising high into the sky in the vain hope of reaching their immense siblings.
"But that's...How?!" Rahllup strained to say in disbelief and anger. She turned to the sisters and grabbed Luna by the shoulders, lifting her up. The charred machine scampered away when it saw that. "What is this? How is that even possible? We've ever even managed to do something like that! The buildings are way too high!"
"It's because of the blue that we're able to do that," Luna explained as best she knew. "I don't know how they can do that with it. It provides more power?"
Rahllup's flames sparked up, doing her best to 'frown' at the blue machine. Blue, wispy trails started to make themselves known above; Deformed and almost fully dissipated.
"What is that stuff?" Biddydee asked with some fear in her voice.
"Trails left behind by the flying vehicles of the makers as they pass through the skies of our cities." She floated higher and stared at the paths. They shouldn't be this far out. Must be drifting away."
Rahllup scoffed and collapsed to her knees after something heavy collided with her back, throwing her into one of the containers far away and freeing Luna. The charred machine had commandeered one of the cranes and used its heavy metal hand to collide into her, freeing the blue machine.
"Oh no!" Dissonance shouted in genuine worry and disbelief.
Galah, however, laughed while Biddy just stared at the event. "Looks like she annoyed our newest member! he laughed. "Don't worry, fluffy," he said to Dissonance. "She'll be fine. Just give it a moment."
The robot came back in a daze, clutching her head. Her flames were dimmed and she seemed groggy as well.
"Don't move," Biddydee ordered. She placed her fingers on Rahllup's back and, with a tug, pulled out a dent in the machine's chassis. "And there's another scar for you."
Rahllup looked at the charred machine glaring at her while hugging Luna and keeping her raised in the air like a doll. Her flames flickered. "Doesn't even know you but wants to protect you like crazy." She chuckled and leaned against the edge of the ship. "Anyways, those of the blue complain about our use of the black energy, but at least we don't pollute anything," she stated sternly. "You're contributing to that sludge that's floating in the ocean!"
"Wouldn't that actually be you who is contributing to it?" Celestia asked. Galah immediately looked to her, upset and surprised that he couldn't respond himself. "With what we've seen, the lands of the black are...different from ours."
Rahllup was taken aback by whom the response came from. "What are you trying to say?" she asked with surprising calm.
"Well, our lands are much cleaner and brighter than yours," the white machine continued. "There isn't what looks like multiple layers of thick gray clouds above us, and there isn't any snow falling constantly."
"But--" Before Rahllup could begin, she was interrupted by Dissonance.
"Isn't that just a false comparative?" they suggested.
"A what?" Celestia asked.
They pointed to the white machine. "You're basing what you know based on where you're from. Isn't it logical to conclude that neither is better than the other?" They patted their scarf, chasing away the grime of the salty sea air. "I had to do some research for my shows. I wanted to make plays to show the caretakers what they were like in the past, but I couldn't find any records concerning that."
The white machine nodded. "I have data going back many centuries." She hummed and looked to her sister. "It is true that I haven't found any references to how the lands were before, simply what happened and the circumstances regarding many events."
Rahllup crossed her arms and raised her head. "So what, we're both wrong?"
Dissonance shrugged. "If information is lacking, then no sides are correct."
"I still find it odd that I can't dig in my storage to find information on the state of the lands in the past," Celestia noted with concern.
"Isn't it like that long before Equestria was founded?" Twilight asked. "I've read several historical books pertaining to the subject matter. There was one by Melon Fields about--"
"We were there, Twilight. We don't need a history lesson," Luna complained. She shook her head. "Or at least partially. We have everything in storage."
"We would have written all down, but the languages kept changing so often," Celestia explained with a shrug. Her arms drooped. "We were tired of rewriting it all so many times," she groaned.
"Ugh, and then all those ponies who refused to believe that they were real and an affront to us," Luna groaned and dragged a ring hand over her face.
Celestia lowered herself and leaned against the rocky walls. "The idiots actually started a war over who started the books and we were only told about it about two years after it happened."" She banged her head against the wall several times. "They did it after we left to visit other lands to both learn of this new world and establish relationships with those around us."
Luna's eyes dimmed. "When they all learned that we were the ones who wrote them, they grew red in the face from rage and anguish." She snorted. "Idiots. 'We thought it was an affront!' some said. 'But it was tearing the history of our people asunder! And there were so many versions!'." The lights along Luna's body glowed a fierce, blinding blue. "Excuses! They slaughtered each other because of ideologies!" She ignored her sister calling to her. "Everything destroyed, lives lost! All that was given to them!"
"Luna that's enough!" Celestia bellowed. "That is the past, and we are in the future. Look what has been done under our supervision. Don't be stuck in a loop again, sister," the princess pleaded. "You're also scaring Twilight," she said flatly.
Luna's trembling body slowly relaxed itself and her lights dimmed. "I'm sorry. I don't like remembering the stupidity of the masses back then. We didn't get many opportunities to see this world after they...Well. It was unexpected but not altogether a bad thing."
As the hours went by, the lands of the blue grew bigger and bigger, and the constructs on their surfaces became more and more pronounced. Seas of white stretching as far as the optic could detect. The machines of the black gawked at the sheer surface occupied by buildings. They couldn't spot any flora anywhere in naturally occurring spaces. To Biddy, this fully industrialized area was both amazing and the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. Whole swaths of land taken over, leaving the animal life there to fester and die.
"They aren't dead," Celestia interjected after overhearing the complaints from Biddy. "There is a surprisingly large amount of creatures that buzz around the lands, but they aren't enormous like those creatures the stowaway lived with, or the delele. No room left," she lamented as she shook her head.
While Rahllup paced back and forth, trying to get a better view of everything, Dissonance was bouncing up and down in excitement.
"Amazing! It's better than I could have imagined, and that's the outside!" he declared to the sisters. "I want to see these 'flying vehicles' you mentioned and the people who live here. I want to see the buildings and how the architecture of this place looks compared to our own!"
Biddy grabbed their head and twisted it to a skypiercer. It was segmented into multiple cubes at three points in the air. They slowly moved about in place, interconnected by the streams of blue and non-transparent, glass-like tubes that twisted and waved with the cubes. The building did this at multiple intervals, its visible shape finalizing as it twisted around to disappear above the clouds in the sky.
"I think our architecture is a wee bit different," Biddydee said while gesturing with her fingers.
"Amazing," the flamboyant machine stated in awe.
"Alright, machines," one of the crew announced. Everyone turned to face them. "I'll need all those running on the black to follow me. Grab everything before we leave. You'll shut down when you get to the container."
"Are we sure we can trust 'em?" Rahllup asked.
"We don't really have much of a choice," Biddy said. "Besides, we still have those two on the outside," she said while gesturing to the sisters.
Rahllup's flames weakened. "You mean three," she said with some annoyance. Galah and the charred machine were turning around each other, fingers raised.
"Why do you do this?" Celestia asked them.
"Because it's fun," Galah explained. He was still focused on his opponent.
"Let's go!" the caretaker ordered loudly. "We'll tell those three where you're going to be dropped off...where's the stowaway?"
The machines looked around, but the charred robot was nowhere to be found. Shrugging it off because they were short on time, the caretaker entrusted its discovery to the sisters and hurried along with the remaining three of the black.
"Where could it have gone?" Luna wondered aloud.
The sisters grabbed Galah by the arms and lifted him up, hovering far above the boat. "I can help with looking for it while we're up here," the prototype suggested. "It should be easier with so many optics scanning around."
"I don't think we'll be able to find them at all," Celestia lamented. "We couldn't find them in the forest, let alone any traces of the home of those giant creatures." She narrowed her gaze to what she thought was the charred robot. It was just a couple of black barrels. "They somehow snuck in through a large port bustling with activity. The port of the blue is even more active." They dodged several very large, slow-moving aerial vehicles moving towards the vessel they had just left from. "If no one has spotted them already, the chances that we find it are even slimmer."
Galah tried to shrug, forgetting where he was and causing the sisters to fumble violently. "Sorry," he said. "If it followed you two through there just to reach you, I believe that it should be watching you at this precise moment as well. It's likely following you in the shadows, or just by hiding in plain sight."
The port was far larger than the one of the black the group left from, but then, everything in the blue seemed far bigger than that from the black. A vast amount of hangars and stockpiles and other vessels all around. Rolling cranes left and right, floating vehicles the size of buildings going from ship to ship to stock up on cargo and transport them to a designated location based on their own personal signature. Makers going left and right accompanying robots of older models aiding them in carrying the smaller cargo onto vehicles for transportation.
"Look over there," Galah announced.
The prototype spotted the robots of the black being placed into a beige container and locked within. The loudspeaker announced that the beige containers had been locked with older robot models in it for study and collections and ready for unloading. This was done with most of the colored containers on the vessel. It was very on-the-nose, but it was better than not knowing where everything was, it was a way to announce the workflow to the crew, and it was likely done only for this instance as an excuse to let the robots of the black out without suspicion.
"Couldn't they have just told you which container the robots were put in then keep it marked for you to find later?" Galah asked.
The sisters stared at the ship silently and processed the information, staring at the target container. After several minutes of removal by crane then discussions and exchanging of paperwork with the assigned dock master at the port, several robots came in, scanning the contents. They produced several sirens that seemed to cause the unloading to last much longer and much more paperwork to convince the dock master of the validity of the cargo by the captain. The container was finally free to travel after some stressful moments to a temporary storage area further away from the ships.
The sisters lowered into the park of stacked containers and dropped Galah off within it whilst following their friends. The one they had been hidden in was placed as the third in a tower of five.
"How are we meant to get them down from there?" Luna wondered.
"We can fly Dissonance down, but the other two will have to jump down themselves," Celestia explained.
The blue machine looked around, checking for any nearby makers. "Wouldn't that make us conspicuous? Aren't we trying to be stealthy?"
Galah waved her concerns away. "Like that's going to be a problem. They make a lot of noise here. I doubt them hearing the two gargantuan blocks landing hard on the ground as a problem."
Celestia placed a hand under her 'chin' while Galah spoke. "I'm still concerned for that strange black robot that followed us."
"You can worry later," Luna said sternly.
The blue machine removed pieces of her chassis and wedged them into the creases of the container's door. The lock was within the doors themselves, but the easiest way for her to break them was to either pry the doors open, breaking the pressure compensators within the locking mechanisms, or simply shorting them out. The blue machine pulled and twisted and bent in as many different directions as she could, eventually confusing the lock and making it unlock on its own by sheer accident of calculations.
Galah saw the effect and looked away, mulling upon times long gone. "Maybe that's why they kept saying that math is stupid and never solved anything," he mumbled to himself.
After a few minutes, Luna floated out of the container partially, gesturing for her sister to come with her. Galah watched the two lower Dissonance while Biddy and Rahllup both hopped down, cratering the ground below and causing a bit of trembling amongst the containers.
"So," Biddy started as she pulled her legs out of the floor. Where do we go? to get out of here an explore this city you wanted us to see so badly?" All three machines of the blue pointed left of everyone, towards a white wall. "Well, let's get going then."
Rahllup took in a deep whiff of air, energizing her flames. "Finally. Some walkin'. Was afraid mah gears were gonna rust and lock up. Ain't got Pa around so that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience," she worried. The giant looked around, noticing an oddity. "Ah reckon that stowaway still ain't appeared yet," she noted.
Luna shook her head. "No, but Galah believes that they're following us. After all, it managed to sneak onto the ship without anyone noticing," she stated.
Rahllup was about to protest but caught herself. "Huh. That actually makes sense." She placed her hands on her hips and nodded. "Well, that's one thing we don't have to worry about, I suppose."
The six moved through the containers, dodging any makers around to reach the wall, but both Biddydee and Dissonance noticed something interesting about their caretakers of the blue.
"These caretakers are quite small," Biddy chuckled.
Dissonance's teeth spun to reveal a face attempting -and failing- to hide their laughter. "It's odd. How did they accomplish anything with such small bodies?" There was a long pause as Galah held everyone back while a group of makers moved through with several robots. "Are they like that because of the blue? Or..." Their eyes lit up. "Or are the caretakers like that because of the black? Which one is the original appearance? Is everything mutated by everything in the world? Or did they just evolve differently?" The flamboyant machine started vibrating in place "If that pink energy works, will we get caretakers of the pink? What will that look like?!" They jolted their gaze to the sisters, startling them. "With that sludge you mentioned, does that mean there were caretakers of all those colors as well? Wh-wh-what happened to them?!" Dissonance continued. There didn't seem to be an end in sight for their panic.
"They're going into a loop. They need to be forced offline," Celestia stated.
"I got a better idea," Rahllup said as she clenched her fists together.
Dissonance was lifted up and slapped hard on the side of the head several times until they stopped blabbering. Rahllup was content with herself. "There we go," she said.
"Thank...you..." they muttered.
The rest of the journey was mostly uneventful. It didn't take long for them to finally break out of the large swathe of land dedicated to the docks, revealing a mostly-flat stretch of land separating the docks from the city. The roads leading from there were massive, allowing for many vehicles to come and go. The three machines of the black stared at the city itself in awe. To the left, there were just more buildings. To the right, still more. There was no end to the city of the blue. Rahllup rubbed the back of her head while Dissonance stared at the horizon of buildings in awe.
"Uh, exactly how long have they been making this?" Rahllup asked. Celestia shrugged, igniting the flame-faced machine's ire. "Ya both really like to shrug now."
"I likely simply haven't recompiled that art of my databanks yet," the white machine explained. "Galah should know, though. Galah?" she called out while turning around.
The group stared, dumbfounded, at the scene playing out before them. Galah and the charred machine were having yet another poking battle. Galah and the charred machine.
Biddy moved forward with dim eyes. She leaned her shoulder against the wall as the two continued their bout, either unaware of or simply ignoring her. "So," she started. "The stowaway appeared after all?" she said.
"Yes," Galah answered. "They were waiting for us outside."
"They were-?!"
"How did they even get out here?" Dissonance shouted. "That makes absolutely no sense!" they continued.
Galah stopped poking. "Oh, they weren't here here," he specified. "They were waiting for us out here, yes, but they came out from another area of the walls. I saw them running over here," he continued matter-of-factly.
Everyone but Galah stared with a metaphorical gape at the charred machine. It immediately rushed over to give Celestia and Luna hugs and stay near them.
"I saw those docks," Twilight said. "I even spotted some shipyards further in the area. There's no way that that stowaway managed to sneak past anypony without them noticing!"
The two sisters looked at each other then shrugged at Twilight.
"Still haven't figured out who they could be?" Luna asked. "I can assure you, Twilight Sparkle, then when you figure out who it is like that you might understand how it was that they performed such feats."
"Well, yes, but that was after. They share traits with her, but they aren't entirely like her either," Celestia argued.
"Well...Hm. Fair enough. They are the only one that we will acknowledge a similarity with." The lights of her eyes focused on a single point, making a laser through the dim black of the cave. "How they taught that to the bugs is still a mystery, let alone how they even did all of that in the first place."
Twilight laughed sarcastically. "Right, well, we'll see then. I'm getting more curious as to who this machine is supposed to remind me of. I don't know of anypony attached enough to a pony they just met that they would hug them just like that without any warning or reason." Her stern and sure expressions turned limp. "Except maybe Pinkie Pie," she muttered to herself.
"Keep a leash on that thing," Rahllup said as she slowly strode away. "It, uh, freaks me out."
"So, are we going to the city in the distance or not?!" Dissonance yelled angrily.
"Calm down, floofy," Galah said derisively. "We're going. Just need to wait for the sisters to remember where that mechanic was."
The group moved away from the wall, moving further across the artificially flattened land painted with straight and angular stripes of white stone and bluish-green grass. The plants had been cut short, but it didn't seem like anyone had done it themselves. There was no trace of vehicles passing by outside of the main roads. The air was stale and odorless, and the world around seemed very dead to those of the blue. Even Dissonance, in all their excited daydreaming, stared sorrowfully at the landscape before them.
"What...is this?" the flamboyant machine said in a weak voice. Every step felt like their system was going to shut down. "It feels so...empty," they wheezed.
Rahllup's flames dimmed as she surveyed the landscape. The giant crouched and pulled out the land, taking in the substances. "This soil is...odd," she said.
"What do you mean?" Biddy asked. "What's wrong with it?" She leaned in, her optics gleaming with amusement. "What do your flame eyes see?"
The giant faced her companion silently, staring at her for a moment. She followed it up with a slap behind her head. "The bacteria in here isn't like the one at home, but it's not...Ah don't know how to put it. It's not doing what it should. Like it's programmed ta do one thing only, maybe?" she said as she looked to Biddy.
Biddy's words were slow and spaced out as she tried to formulate a proper conclusion. "Isn't it...just because...it's a different land?"
The giant looked up at the clear mostly-blue sky. She made a hum of disapproval. "You saw those weird blue trails. They're pollutin' this place. Ah'm sure of it," Rahllup claimed firmly.
The triangular machine placed a hand on the back of her head and looked at the sky then the ground and heaved an artificial sigh. "I admit that this looks strange. The grass is too uniform to be actually wild, and the blades show no sign of being cut artificially."
"How do they even make seeds and grow?" Rahllup wondered.
"It's that way," Celestia announced.
The sisters lowered from above and pointed to the city. Rahllup scoffed. "Yes. Very specific."
"It means that is the direction to go in to begin our travel," the white machine specified.
Somewhat annoyed, the group moved along to the rising line of obnoxiously tall and astonishingly designed architectural abominations. At least, that's what those of the black felt like. As Dissonance said, it was like looking upon a god of beauty that manipulated you into thinking it was the pinnacle of its aspect when, in reality, it was the most hideous thing imaginable, and even though you knew, you couldn't look away. It was a grim prospect.
Dissonance looked to the sisters casually floating side-by-side, accompanied by Galah and the clingy charred machine. "Is this what they thought when they came to our home?" the flamboyant machine thought. "I don't like these epiphanies I'm getting in such a short span of time."
After about an hour of walking, Luna smacked herself in the head. "I forgot!" She turned to the three. "There are patrolling machines that go through the city regularly called Public Assistance Robots. I call them PABs. They take out any machinery displaying dangerous glitches or those from the black."
Rahllup clenched her fists. "You couldn't have told us sooner?!"
"We believe you two are more powerful than they are, and they always patrol either alone or in pairs," Celestia explained. "They were designed to overpower standard machines of the blue and of the black. However, they were never designed to counter us nor machines like yourselves who have been cobbled together from different pieces."
"Or from a canceled line," Biddy interjected. "No one knows my line except for Pa."
"It's fine," Galah reassured. He kicked a protruding stone away. "We get to the engineer, he registers you temporarily as his property, and then you can leave after you've had it with this place."
The flame-faced giant readjusted their pack and grunted. "You didn't say anything about our fuel supply."
Celestia slowly looked to the side towards the city, her eyes dimming to a horizontal line of light. "We need to avoid them for the time being," the white machine stated. "If they spot us now with that fuel on your backs, it's not likely to end well."
Galah collapsed to one knee, prompting Luna's body to start trembling and her chassis plates to wiggle like they were holding down a mounting pressure of steam beneath them.
"What's wrong?!" the blue machine bellowed in a panic.
"Low power," the prototype forced out.
Luna's body almost immediately relaxed and she transferred some power to Galah who was ready to go almost instantly afterwards.
"We need to replenish ourselves, however," Celestia said without taking her sister out of her sight.
"Okay," Dissonance started. "I might be able to get out of their scrutiny since--"
"Their detection of your black would circumvent any presence of the blue, as that would be seen as a contamination," Luna explained.
The flamboyant machine dropped their arms in defeat. "I just can't win here." Their teeth displayed a disappointed face.
After yet more hours, the group finally reached the city as the sun began to set in the sky, changing the vibrant blue to a fading orange, startling the machines of the black when they noticed.
"The sky is on fire!" Rahllup screamed. She frantically started looking around. "We need some water to put it out! If I can just punch and pull out a water pipe..."
Biddy slapped her and pulled her up. "You're not going to reach it with a pipe!"
"That...is sunset," Celestia stated with disappointment.
Luna snorted as the charred machine gripped her hand whilst gazing at the sky.
"Sunset?" Dissonance repeated. They looked to the sky, their eyes brightened. "So it's a natural phenomenon?" They looked around and picked up a stone just to throw it down angrily. "I've been denied such colors my whole life?!" Dissonance grabbed Celestia by the arms and raised them up. "Thank you so much for allowing me to come here!" There was a pause before a thought rushed to their mouth. "Is there a sunrise too?"
Luna couldn't help but feel a strange emotion in her programming when she noticed just how disappointed her sister was. "Obviously,"
Twilight was staring at the images slackjawed. "They couldn't have possibly been that stupid!" she said with certainty to the princesses. "You're exaggerating just for the sake of the story!"
Luna rolled her eyes. "A student that cannot learn. Grand. Twilight Sparkle, what was the black like?"
"Dark, covered in perpetual clouds, and often snowing that weird ash stuff," the lavender alicorn answered.
Luna nodded. "Right. However, the inhabitants of the black were always living in those conditions," she explained.
"What is obvious for you is not for them," Celestia added.
Twilight sputtered several times. "But it's the sun and the sky! There's no way. I refuse to believe it."
"You're taking things for granted again my dear stu-" Celestia caught herself almost instantly and internally chastised herself. "My dear Twilight Sparkle. You know of the sun and moon, and how we move them. This is normal for you. This is your way of life."
"But we didn't exist back then," Luna interjected. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned over the lavender alicorn. "How did the sun and moon move then, Twilight Sparkle?!" she asked aggressively.
Confronted by an aggressive moon princess and being loomed over by a terrifying machine of an age past, Twilight couldn't thing of a proper response. Every time she was about to gather her thoughts into coherency, Luna's eyes would shine brighter and brighter, and in the natural dark of the cave, everything around became dimmer until only the rings of the machine's were visible at any angle.
"I uh, I don't know," Twilight stuttered.
Luna pulled back and guffawed. "You don't know how that works? Everyone with a basic education knows how that works!" She turned to face Celestia. "You hear that, sister? This one doesn't know how the sun and moon function."
The white machine had covered her face with a hand and was shaking it in disappointment. "You go too far, Luna."
"Or..." The blue machine looked around. "Maybe not far enough!" she declared.
Twilight heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it. I think, but something bothers me."
"What is it?" Celestia asked after trapping Luna's head in an arm lock.
Twilight's eyes darted left and right whilst staring at the floor as she pooled through each though and concern. "Did those two giants with you manage to even get through the city without being bothered? What about Dissonance? I mean, they aren't the most inconspicuous machines." The two princesses separated and started fidgeting in place. "Princesses?" Twilight called out. They began fidgeting even more. "Princesses?!" the lavender alicorn called out louder. "What did you do about them?!"
The machines of the black were in awe at the sheer amount of buildings, the compactness they held, the amount of machines running around, the strange machinery employed for things as simple as advertising and warning alerts. The charred machine wanted to flee back into the open plains, but Luna held her in place.
"You don't need to worry," the blue machine reassured. "This is just a new experience for you. You shouldn't run away from it, and we're here to keep you company."
The machine looked at her then to Celestia and clenched its fists.
"Oh, it's so nice to be back," Galah announced with a stretch. "I can't wait to enter a station and finally be able to decompile my software and repair my hardware."
Rahllup looked towards Dissonance just staring at everything in awe, stroking their fluffy apparel in some sort of hypnotic trance. "You're quiet, fluffy neck. You were talking nonstop at the farm. What's wrong?"
"W-well, it's just the mixture of things here. The architecture, the soil, the sky, and the very place itself. It's mixture of hideousness and beauty." They looked to the flame-faced giant and their teeth spun to show a face in complete ecstasy. "I love it! It's better than my wildest dreams!" The flamboyant machine bellowed.
During their sightseeing, several of the makers had almost immediately noticed the strange machines accompanying the sisters, and the responses weren't positive in the least. Rahllup leaned in towards one of them, her face burning bright with the flames of her curious furnace. The confronted were frozen in place and unable to move as their legs shook like crazy. Rahllup grabbed them, squeezing gently and stretching their limbs. When she let go, her flames flickered and she shook her head in disappointment.
"These caretakers are all so thin 'n scrawny," she complained. "How did ya accomplish anythin' over here?"
Said caretakers ran away screaming, causing those around to do the same or flee into the nearby buildings. Luna and Celestia scratched their heads while the charred machine pointed at the makers and did the best it could to imitate a laugh.
"That's not good," Galah stated with concern. He looked around, listening very intently. "We have two PABs incoming. Until we can get these four registered by that engineer, they're going to keep chasing after us," the prototype explained to everyone.
Indeed, two of what Luna once saw as giants arrived. They were somewhat shorter than Biddy and Rahllup, breaking an old memory. They immediately approached the group and gravitated towards the sisters.
"Model LN-1a custom and Model Specific LH-37-bq3. You have been missing for--"
"Bla bla," Rahllup interrupted. "Just points us ta the engineer 'r whatever these two were talking about."
The PABs emitted a loud, blaring horn from their bodies and approached the two giants. "Machines of the black. Unregistered to public safety, engineer, mechanic design officials. No designation to any qualified positions. Detaining for safe disposal," the pair announced in unison.
They clamped down onto the giants' arms and sent an electric current through their bodies and tugged. To their 'surprise', the giants were not phased. Their systems tried to process the concept and they grabbed several different parts of the giants' bodies in an attempt to disable them, but nothing seemed to work.
"Error." The first one scanned Rahllup several times and lingered on the featureless flames serving as her face. "Error. Multiple components of models of the black present."
"Error," the second chimed in as it scanned Biddydee. "Model of the Gray. Model of the grrrr-gR-gr-Gra-a-A-a-Gray. Cancellllllllllllll proJecT inompat-aT-pat cancELLLLLLL--"
Its innards started to hum loudly, then crackle, until it eventually began to smoke and erupted in a bright flash, collapsing as a heap of melted metal onto the ground.
Rahllup lifted the PAB before her by the head and raised it high into the air, eventually tossing it over her shoulders. It bounced a few times before stopping with a long shriek on the ground. The machine continued to twitch and glitch, repeating what its late partner had.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's keep goin'," Rahllup declared. "Besides, how many're left? Twenty? Thirty?"
"There's millions patrolling the cities of the blue at any given time," Celestia explained.
"I thought there were only a few hundred," Luna said as she pulled the charred machine away. It had been angrily stomping on the burnt out PAB.
"What?!" Dissonance bellowed.
"We'll have to sneak around, then," Galah noted as he looked around across the streets. "If I'm not mistaken they tend to stay far apart from each other but just close enough that they can reinforce each other in case of a crisis." He look to the side at the group. "At least, that's what I experienced in my day. Not sure if they do the same thing now or there's another system in place now."
Rahllup groaned in annoyance, but Biddy was the one to talk. "You didn't really plan anything when you wanted us to follow you, did you?" the triangular machine asked the sisters.
"I was compelled by...something, to gather as many machines as me and travel the world with them," Luna explained. The lights of her body flickered as she clutched her head. "I don't know why I did it."
Biddybee placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Well, too late to do anything about it now, so no point in getting upset."
"The question remains to what we're going to do to get to this 'mechanic' you mentioned," Dissonance said. "Since everyone here seems to scream in terror when they see the two horrific b..." They started looking around. "Where'd the stowaway go?" The group started looking around, surprised that it had vanished once again. "Weren't you holding its hand?" they asked Luna.
The blue machine looked at said hand for several seconds before detecting audio from behind her. The charred machine was busy dragging a maker out from one of the buildings, doing its best to use both hands, although its arched back and plethora of emerging sparks indicated the difficulty it was still experiencing.
"What are you doing, you idiot?!" Galah shouted. He hopped over to the charred machine, his massive weight cracking the ground beneath every stomp. He pulled the maker out of the charred machine's hands, provoking its ire as it slapped him away and rushed to Luna. "The maker is...pale?" the prototype noted. "They look like they've been drained." Said maker was groaning and rolling weakly from side to side. "At least they aren't dead."
The whole group looked to the charred machine hiding behind Luna. It tried to yell at them, but only a garbled electric buzzing came out along with sparks.
"How exactly do you function?" Biddy wondered.
"Are we just going to ignore the triangle's being of the 'gray'?" Dissonance called out. The others ignored them and so were met with a shrug. "Well, alright then. If that's how it's going to be."
Much to Dissonance's annoyance, the group left as quickly as possible, using Luna and Celestia as forward scouts and Galah as an 'all clear' signal. While the makers seemed intrigued by the two floating machines present, they were far less eager when the two giants from the black appeared, repeating the same welcome they had earned when they first arrived: Screaming and running away, ad nauseum.
Dissonance crossed their arms and pouted. "Not liking this place," they complained. "How am I supposed to get a feel for the people here when all they do is run away screaming when they see the two ogres accompanying us?!"
Luna looked at the giants and noticed they seemed more brutish and simple after that comment. She reset her visual programs, delighting at them returning to normal afterwards.
"There's no way we're goin' ta get through all of this without gettin' caught and destroyed," Rahllup grumbled.
"We'll have to take a break when night falls," Luna said. Only Galah and Celestia didn't look at her dumbfounded. "The mechanic's home is around here, but the area is too big. I was mistaken about being able to accurately spot it."
"I thought their workshop was a large, open terrain filled with junk," Galah said.
Luna shrugged. "We can't find it for some reason." She looked around and rubbed her 'muzzle'. "They couldn't have changed the environment that much in the little time we were gone," she muttered worriedly. "We need to stop by a maintenance station and get directions." She looked to her sister. "Or, at least, my sister can get directions as she has map records of the city."
Rahllup's fire dimmed. "Then why don't we just use her map?" she asked while pointing to the white machine.
Celestia was struggling to hold the black machine back while Galah carried the maker back into the building.
"Because she doesn't have any geolocalization," Luna explained. "The city is too big to determine where we are through landmarks as the buildings and layout are too uniform."
Rahllup's flames flickered as she tried to figure out what the blue machine had just told her.
"It means they don't know where we are on the map," Dissonance groaned in exasperation. "I'd call you a meathead if you had any meat on you."
"Hey, ah'm a farmer, not a geolocationalist!" Rahllup retorted angrily.
Dissonance stared at her, speechless. "You mean a cartographer?!" they shouted.
Biddy clonked them both on the head. "Enough of your constant fighting. We've been doing that non-stop! I'm tired of it! My systems are overheating trying to process it!" She looked to Celestia as she dragged the grumpy charred machine letting itself be as heavy a burden as possible by letting itself go limp. "How do we stay out of sight while you stay at a recharge station, whatever that is? I suppose those weird robots won't be taking the 'night off' to recharge as well."
Celestia went through her database. "It would have been optimal to find the junkyard first, but we have no choice. We'll have to find a place where you can hide and rejoin us afterwards, or at least keep us in sight and be fully active when we become active ourselves."
The group continued on, becoming more and more annoyed by the lack of good spots until, finally, they came across a station that had six spots left open. Nodding to each other, the giants decided that climbing the nearby buildings and waiting on the roofs would be preferable to waiting on the floor. After all, the PABs didn't look anywhere but at ground level. There was no reason for any machine to climb buildings, and makers weren't able to get up the smooth surfaces, not that it would matter since they weren't machines of the black anyways, and they would have to go on the ground at some point anyways. A flaw, Celestia noted, but one that hadn't seen a need for correction yet.
And so, the giants and Dissonance watched as the three stepped within the pads of the service stations and stared in awe at the cylinder of light encasing the machines. It was far brighter and filled with more floating tendrils than for the other attached machines. The system seemed to be going hyper active.
Luna felt the comfort of her service then was slowly pulled out of her system cooling and recompiling when a plethora of warnings and danger alerts popped up in front of her. They were flooding her vision, drowning her in red and orange lights that she couldn't escape from. The blue machine could feel her body being worked on but could do nothing to stop it, not that she wanted to. However, the system was trying to access her core files and programs and was met with constant denial. Confused, the system logged the events and made several requests for an administrator, requests which were seen by blind eyes as they were never replied to. Luna felt her body reinvigorated with the energies she so craved, but saw that she had been at sixty-seven percent somehow. Possibly because of her donating energy to Galah so he wouldn't shut down. She should pay more attention to that in the future. It was a thought that caused her body to shake despite being in sleep mode.
What was once a calm, black void was slowly becoming an agitated sea of interconnecting white dots and blue lights. They washed over Luna violently, filling her vision. She could see the lights flickering, then vanish, then come forth again. After what felt like several minutes of this, the calm void returned. Relieved, Luna looked back at the image of the tower that ignited her mind in the past. Her reminiscing was quickly stopped by the feeling that something else was around.
Meet them all
A silent, swirling storm appeared in the distance, its insides on fire and creating flashing spots of orange light when the swirling clouds thinned. There was another of the black, potentially, to find. Or rather...Luna looked at it closely. Every flash started illuminating the outside of something else. It took a while, but the blue machine could finally see it: There was a plethora of pitch-black, furious storms next to the illuminated one. She didn't understand what was happening nor what this meant. Was the network simply being strange? She hadn't connected to it for a very long time, after all. The hidden figures were vaguely illuminated by a light coming from behind the machine. A blue light.
Turning around, Luna perceived towering blue vortexes of pseudo-flame freezing everything around them and producing icey trails in the air.
MeeT aùù%µ gH(°
She felt like she was being crushed in between them as many tinier dots popped up in her vision, strewn about randomly at various elevations.
From her level to high above or deep below. It was like a whole new world was popping into existence with the machine at its center, then she reactivated. Both she and Celestia were unnerved, and judging by the visual exchange they made with each other, it was a very similar experience they both had. Galah, on the other hand, casually stretched his limbs and whirred his entrails to reheat everything.
Makers walked past the stations with their bots, looking at the sisters with awe...and confusion. Then they looked in horror and fled screaming when Biddy and Rahllup cratered the white ground after jumping down, the latter carrying Dissonance under her arm.
"Do ya know where it is?" Rahllup asked.
"Yes," Celestia answered. "There have indeed been some changes, and it is that way," she declared with a point.
"Then let's get hurryin' along ta be registrated," the giant urged whilst dropping Dissonance down gently. "Don't like the feelin' of bein' a fugitive...Has it been starin' at you the whole time?"
The sisters flinched when they realized that the charred machine had been standing in front of them, hunched over. It bounced eagerly, clapping once the two noticed it and stepped to the side, presenting the group to its latest work: A pile of deactivated PABs slumped against a building wall currently being tended to by thin machines of the blue. The charred machine's arm was immediately grabbed and yanked away by Luna.
"And we are out of here," the blue machine declared urgently.
The group took notes on what those of the black had done and were using the buildings to travel whenever possible. It didn't help that it was daytime now and they couldn't really travel without being spotted by passer-bys. Distance and peripheral vision were a thing. With some difficulty and bashing in the heads of a few more PABs, the group finally arrived at the giant fence leading to the junkyard. The sisters noted that it was far larger than they remembered. It couldn't have grown so big in just a few months, could it?
"How are we going to get in?" Dissonance asked as they looked up the height of the structure. "I don't see an entrance."
"Well, we just float above," Luna explained. "We could carry you up one-by-one so there's no tr--"
"Outta our way!" Rahllup commanded loudly. She and Biddy patted their shoulders as they took a step back. They quickly shoulder-bashed their way through the massive and sturdy fence after multiple attempts. "There. We're in," Rahllup said as she clapped her hands to get the dust off of them.
"There's some discrepancies in your story," Twilight noted.
"How so?" Luna asked.
"Well, for one, time seems inconsistent. There's a few days at one moment, then weeks, then hours. I thought it was just you skipping parts, but..." Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "It feels like whoever was writing it couldn't grasp time very well."
Celestia floated around the cramped cave, dusting off the walls as if looking for some surviving remnant of the past. "There's a reason for that, Twilight." She sighed and lowered herself, dissolving her hands into a cloud of dust before quickly reshaping them elsewhere. "Even now we have trouble understanding it..."
Twilight could still feel the sorrow and melancholy coming from the two princesses despite their mostly featureless faces. The discrepancies couldn't be that large, right? Anypony often has moments where it feels like time flew by without noticing.
For the first time in what felt like forever, the two had to look up. The titanic creation of the engineer was glaring at them.
"Who's trying to break into my home? Destroying my fence? Think you can get my rare robotics for yourself, huh?!" and angry-yet-familiar voice yelled out angrily. The grumpy maker peered from the side of the colossus, a metal beam in hand. "Robots?! Who sent you?!" Celestia and Luna floated over the wall and dropped Galah down. They set down in front of the maker and waved. The engineer stared at them, slackjawed, and his arm went limp, letting the pipe drop to the ground. "Not you again!" he bellowed.
"No! I'm not dealing with you two again," the mechanic shouted angrily whilst picking the pipe back up. "You even destroyed my wall wit these-eeeYeee!" He flinched after seeing what exactly was present in his home. The maker's gaze focused primarily on Rahllup and her flame-face then trailed towards Dissonance and the charred machine. "...Where do you even find t-No!" He chastized himself and smacked the sides of his head with his partially clenched hands. "Get out!" he ordered. He walked up towards Rahllup and started beating her with his pipe.
"Hey! W-stop it!" the giant pleaded whilst bending away and raising her arm.
"No! Get out! I don't want to deal with you again!"
Annoyed, Rahllup caught the pipe and ripped it out of the aged maker's hand, causing him to fall to the floor. The giant crushed the pipe in her hand, tossed it aside, and readied for a backhanded slap.
"No, Rahllup, you're going to kill him!" Biddy shouted.
"Ah ain't gonna slap him that hard!" Rahllup shouted. "Just 'nough to teach 'em some manners," she stated calmly. "Now stop hittin' people you d--"
The flame-faced machine was punched hard into the wall by the colossus which had been previously watching everything passively. Its insides whine sharply as it put its own functions into overdrive. One of the tanks containing the black energy was pierced, and a furious black cloud started leaking from it, devouring everything it could.
"Plug the hole!" Dissonance howled in panic.
Rahllup detached the pack and charged angrily at the colossus while the sisters and Galah grabbed whatever metal scraps were lying about to block the leak while Dissonance ran around looking for welding equipment. The giant and the colossus were embroiled in battle -one that the maker's creation was winning- while the tank continued to leak. As for the charred machine, it just watched the events unfold silently.
"I can't find anything to weld the metal!" Dissonance shouted in a panic.
"Angry little thing," Biddy commented. The energy was pounding angrily at the metal slab she and the sisters had placed on the hole. "We need to keep this inside! We'll run short of energy quicker, and Rahllup is already likely burning through hers."
"Get out of the way!" a familiar voice shouted angrily. The maker pushed in-between the arms of the trio and held up a blue-colored jelly-like substance in one hand and multiple yellow nails in the other. "You can't seal away black energy or contain it with metal." The metal scrap was almost shot through the mechanic when Biddy let go, but he was quick enough to place the blue jelly before too much energy leaked out. It quickly compressed itself in reaction to the contents of the tank and fused into said tank's material. "The chemicals of this compound will get hyper-excited in reaction to black energy, and these tacks should hold it in place, solidifying it in contact with itself." He chuckled. "Interweaving molecules keeps the solid and malleable parts from breaking off each other." The maker looked to the two fighting and bellowed. "That's enough!"
The colossus backed away and left Rahllup to get a free hit in...if Biddy and Galah hadn't pulled her away.
"Although I'm loathe to say, as I don't want to add more aggression to the air, if we had our actual bodies I don't think this ramshackle machine would have survived Rahllup," Biddy commented as she watched the colossus return to the maker.
"Your what?" the engineer spurted out after a pause.
"We're the cores of our bodies," Biddy explained. "I figured mentioning something about us might incentivize you to hear us out."
The maker looked Biddy up and down and leaned towards Rahllup. "You're not cores," he stated with annoyance. "That kind of concept never went past the theoretical stage." He pointed at the flame-faced giant. "Maybe that slapped-together one could have been designed with that idea, but no way you're the same. Your design is too intricate." He noticed the charred machine standing next to the damaged wall, waiting for an opportunity to flee if things got worse. "And how is that one even still functional?" The maker looked at the sisters and shouted once more. "Where did you even get these weird things?! No, the question should be 'how' instead."
Luna floated forward while Dissonance explored the junkyard and analyzed everything to its heart's content. "We came here so you could register these machines under your name while they're in the blue."
The maker crossed his arms and shook his head obstinately. "Nope. Nup. Nnnn nnn. Not happening. You're liable to bring in some freakish incidents my way if I do that. Go ask someone else."
Luna rubbed her chin pensively, trying to come up with a solution. This maker adored all things robotic, and the machines she brought back were of the black. Perhaps there was a solution. "Do you know what the 'gray' is?"
The maker's arms dropped and he stared limply at the blue machine. "The what?"
"The gray." Luna gestured to Biddybee who stepped forward. "The PABs we encountered crashed when they saw her, calling her a 'machine of the gray'."
"I am from a canceled line of next generation robots that were meant to be deployed in the black," Biddy explained. "My caretaker found me and rebuilt me along with Rahllup."
There was a long pause before the maker spoke again. "I honestly can't say that I've heard of anything called 'the gray', although I did hear rumors that those of the black were developing a new energy source. When nothing came the people became jaded and the rumors died out." He remained pensive whilst looking at Celestia pull the charred machine closer. "Considering tensions between the two energies, it would surprise me that the black wouldn't have developed anything while we're developing pink energy." He approached Biddydee and started grabbing, wiping off, and observing every inch of her triangular body. "But a prototype and of the gray, you say? Such a fascinating design. It vaguely reminds me of those two that came here randomly while exploring. That you're still able to function on the black is a marvelous feat of engineering. Was it this 'caretaker' you mentioned that allowed this to work?"
Biddy shook her head. "No. Pa just fixed up my broken bits and powered me back up."
"Pa?" the engineer repeated in disbelief. "Then they were somehow aware of something wrong and tried to compensate for it with some foresight." He looked to Rahllup, now calmed down, looking over the husks of newly acquired machines. "And I suppose that one is just cobbled together?" The triangular machine nodded. "Then it's a scrapyard bot, much like my own. I would very much like to meet this 'Pa' and know how he made you two."
"Can you take a look at this machine?" Celestia asked.
The charred machine was doing its best to hide behind Celestia but couldn't fight her grip, allowing the engineer to approach it and observe from a close distance.
"How in the world is it even working? All its power cables are damaged or exposed and just from looking from the outside its components are all partially destroyed." The maker's voice took on a somber undertone. "This is abnormal. I fear this thing might be older than it appears to be. I don't know if I even have the tools or parts to fix it."
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked. "It cannot be very old. Without active maintenance it--"
"Look at it!" the engineer interrupted loudly. "This thing is a model I've never even seen before, and its body is in pieces." He stammered, trying to find proper words to convey the situation. "We barely have any data, if any, on previous energy used. The only proof they ever existed is the waste we can find when it pops up. Wh-wh-what if this is a machine from that era which somehow found a new way to sustain itself, a way that circumvents all known logic and laws of physics? What if this energy we're using is doing something to us and the world and we aren't aware of it?" There was a long moment where he metaphorically slobbered over the charred machine before realizing what he had been doing and sputtered multiple times. "Don't think this changes anything! I still want you out of here!" He slowly shrunk down. "A-after I look at these machines of the black." The engineer cleared his throat and straightened himself out, displaying his paunch. "It's a rare opportunity to get any machines of the black here in such conditions, let alone fully functional."
"You know, those PABs didn't seem like as much of a threat as I thought they were when you introduced them," Twilight explained. She was lying down on the ground with her forelegs crossed. "I'm assuming, judging by the name, that they're just the first line of defense?"
"Oh wow. Your student didn't need everything explained to her like an expositional prose of a story," Luna said flatly whilst staring at the alicorn.
Celestia slapped her in the back of the head. "You're right, Twilight Sparkle. They're the patrol and assistance bots, so it stands to reason that they weren't designed with handling potential 'super threats'." She gestured with quotation fingers. "The blue is very different from the black in that they don't show anything...aggressive up front. They're sort of hidden until something warrants their appearance. As far as I know, by the time we were active, they weren't ever sent out as the PABs were always sufficient."
"Biddydee and Rahllup were just too abnormal for them to handle, and as you saw, Biddybee's mere existence caused system crashing," Luna explained.
Twilight's creased her eyes. "Then, what is it that they use? Is it dangerous?"
The colossus was holding down the charred machine while the engineer shone a light through the holes in its body, humming and mumbling to himself while he worked.
"The cables transferring power through the whole thing aren't even connected," Celestia overheard him say. He sat up onto his knees and grabbed a dirty cloth lying on the floor to wipe his hands with. "I'll need a moment to think about what to do." He watched Dissonance complaining loudly and taking his fluffy scarf off to pat it hard and chase off the dust. "What in the world."
Noticing the maker's gaze, Dissonance moved forward with a haughty and quite revolted demeanor. "Sir, I wasn't told that this...establishment would be so dirty and dusty," they stated matter-of-factly. "Why is your place of work so dirty?"
The engineer stared at the flamboyant machine, dumbfounded. "Who messed with your hull? That's an awful welding job." The maker did his best to not laugh at the sight and behavior of this strange contraption before him.
Dissonance looked down at their chest and were quick to cover themselves back up. "N-no one did that. I did it to myself."
The engineer shook his head. "How? And why?"
"To add the blue to my insides for my theater displays!" Dissonance declared loudly.
"You're working on both..." the engineers said in monotone. He shook his head. "I need new plating to weld onto this thing's body as well as a plethora of wiring. There should be more than enough in one of my storage warehouses." He pointed at Biddy with his flashlight. "You, triangle, hold this thing down. I'll see about its voice box later on."
Biddy's body clicked as she glared at the maker. "Right."
The colossus was sent to the warehouses to recover the needed parts, leaving the engineer to look at the hole in his wall and grumble angrily. "I'm surprised you two even came back." The maker sat down, grunting the whole way. "I thought I was finally free of you." He rubbed his forehead and rotated his neck. "I'm getting too old for this."
"Well, we haven't been gone that long," Celestia said.
Her response was met with a dumbfounded expression. "You've been gone for over two years." Luna and Celestia's bodies seized up while the maker chuckled to himself. "Oh right. Of course. Entities like yourselves can't perceive time like we do." The two machine's lights started to flicker as they stared at themselves and the world around them, something that didn't go unnoticed. "Is something wrong? Power supplies malfunctioning?"
"We weren't gone that long," Celestia said.
"But you have, though. I'm certain you noticed the expansion of my terrain and the...better walls." The engineer coughed awkwardly.
"We weren't gone that long..." Luna repeated.
"Oh, I know what's happening," Dissonance said.
The engineer flinched and fell backwards. "You're still here?!"
The flamboyant machine put a hand on the two machine's shoulders and pulled them down into a hug. "We all know what you're going through right now. You're aware of the time but don't see it as they do. Events are just that to us: Events. Until you can create a way to affix your perceptions it'll be like this constantly for you, I'm sorry."
"But...we weren't gone that long..." Celestia said with a distorting voice.
Twilight stared silently at the princesses with giant eyes, teachers who seemed absent-minded.
"We learned how to perceive time like everyone else," Luna shrugged. "After being able to take on organic forms, we started learning about various points during the day to mark the passage of time."
"Sleeping is one of those," Celestia squeaked. "And one of the most enjoyable, I'd say."
Luna started counting off her 'fingers'. "There's also the moments of the day like breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Her arms drooped. "Took us....took us a while to understand and learn how to eat and drink, among other more revolting necessities." She looked at Celestia from the corner of her eyes. "Of course, not all of us learned that they didn't need to eat incessantly during the day, such as my sister and her cake obsession."
The white machine snapped out of her daze and clenched her fists and dropped them to her sides. "It's not an obsession!"
Her sister stared at her and spoke in an exhausted, deadpan voice. "You ate ten of them in an hour yesterday." Celestia remained silent. "They were wedding cake sized. You could fit two ponies in each of them."
The solar princess huffed several times before turning her back. "You're exaggerating. They weren't that big."
"I'm pretty sure your anchor points in time are based on how much cake you eat and when you eat the next one...or onezzz," Luna mocked derisively.
Twilight had tuned out of the conversation the moment she heard of 'anchor points'. Would she be in the same situation? The musty stench of the old cave became more pronounced as new fears started to consume her. Would her future feel stale and demented the longer she went on?
"You're unlikely to feel the same way as we do, Twilight," Celestia reassured. Twilight snapped her attention to her former teacher. "You grew up as an organic, we didn't. You have ways to anchor yourself regardless of how old you get, but things will get tiring the longer things go on for you if you don't remain active," Celestia explained. The white machine heaved a sigh. "It was like that for us, unfortunately. Became really exhausting just to be active all the time."
"And no pad, so we couldn't even go to 'sleep'," Luna added. She 'lied down' in the air, placing her arms behind her head and crossing her legs. "Don't even need to recover power anymore. Just have to stand in place and we're replenished."
"To be fair, we were offline for most of the time we have existed," Celestia added. She shrugged. Twilight's distress didn't escape Celestia who leaned over her former student. "You needn't worry, Twilight. We're still here. If ever you feel you have any troubling thoughts invading your head," The white machine 'climbed' Twilight's muzzle with her fingers to reach her head. "then you can come to us. Just make sure that you don't tell anypony about our actual forms," she asked.
"Not like they would believe her anyways," Luna said dismissively.
"Well, let's get back to our story to take your mind off things."
"And the lands of the black are covered by some kind of permanent cloud? That drops snow on everything?" the engineer repeated with enthusiasm. He was sanding down the burnt body of the charred machine and laser-cutting parts with far too much damage to be repaired. The 'patient' seemed intrigued by the bright light the laser produced and no longer needed to be held down while it was worked on.
"That's right. Figured this place'd be the same," Rahllup noted. She looked around and stared at the sky. "That open sky terrified me, as did the sun. Thought it was just a bright white light in the sky. Had no idea it'd actually be that bright," she looked towards the sisters and her flames flickered. "Still believe that yer sky is just cause of that blue energy you're usin'."
The engineer chucked away a piece of bent shard metal and nodded. "I suppose that would make sense with what you told me, although how anything managed to survive where you live is beyond me." He dropped his tool and wiped his forehead, taking a moment to breathe. "I would've preferred to work in my workshop rather than on the floor." He grunted in pain and put a hand to his back. "I'm getting too old for this. Need a bionic spine."
Dissonance placed their hands on the male's back and started vibrating. "I'm an actor of many talents," the flamboyant machine declared. "The comfort of my public is always the priority!"
"That-! Actually, that feels nice. Wof." The engineer let his body go limp as his muscles were stretched out and relaxed. He looked at Dissonance, noticing the 'teeth' displaying a haughty looking face with closed eyes and a bow tie under its chin. "Printed discs?"
"Yes. I made it myself from cobbled together scrap and refuse." They shrugged. "Not the best origin story of one of my modifications, but it's served me greatly to get emotions across thanks to my lack of proper facial movement."
"And who modified you?"
"I modified myself."
Dissonance was met with a look of confusion and outright disbelief and amazement. "I can't believe that. A machine modifying itself," the engineer laughed. "That pair really finds the strangest of machines."
The group heard a thump of metal partially muffled by the dusty land absorbing most of the impact and spitting dust into the sky. The colossus rushed forward towards a gate entrance on the blacked side of the building.
"What's happening?" Rahllup asked.
"Someone opened the gates, but only I can do that," the engineer spoke stoically.
He looked on grimly at his colossus standing tall, threatening whatever had breached his security. Galah was the second to take a look at them, at which point his systems started screaming.
"What?! They're still in service?!" he shouted.
Dust followed behind Galah as he rushed past the engineer, quickly joined by the charred machine. A pair of machines stepped out from the blind spot, revealing themselves. Their bodies were bulky and armored and looked like they had been divided into several different sections. They were very angular, and the edges of their 'sections' raised and closed like flaps, releasing steam with each action. Their heads were an assembly of lozenges, making that their ocular receptors were fused into a single black lens above and below their relatively flat noses composed of multiple layers of rectangular metal that stretched forward almost into a point. The back of their heads revealed something of a gap, along with two sharp extensions of overlapping, hollow cubes. Celestia found them to look like overly complicated pieces of bismuth. Five digits with similar features to the 'horns' extended from thick forearms, but the wrist joints could not be seen. Instead, a long bill of metal hung threateningly above the fingers. That said digits seemed able to retract wasn't a good sign.
"A disturbance was detected. Multiple PABs were found incapacitated within the vicinity of this area," one of them declared. Unlike the PABs who still had a strong and imposing-but-gentle voice, these things' voices were far deeper and much more aggressive. "We are conducting an investigation to determine the source."
Rahllup scoffed, her flame crackled, and she brought her companion with her. "Ah don't think these guy's've understood yet."
"I agree with my sister. It would be best to deal with them again and then be registered, provided you're still in agreement to that," Biddy added as she spoke to the engineer.
Galah watched them silently from his hiding place behind several piles of old, rusted machine chassis. Rahllup grabbed the head of one of the machines, intent on crushing their heads then being through with it. Her systems whined at the resistance they faced, but then came a loud 'clonk'. The sisters floated out of the way and both Dissonance and the Maker had to dive to avoid the giant flying across the yard and against the walls.
"I didn't think I'd ever see those things," the maker said in a hushed tone. "Those haven't been used in a very long time." He rubbed his chin. "I can't remember how long for the life of me. Some 'expert' in machine I am," he grunted as he forced himself up. Biddy was forced to the ground by the other machine then left alone as they approached the maker, towering over him as the regular PABs did. "Can I help you with your investigation?" he asked the first one.
The second was the one to speak. "Disturbances point to these machines within your compound." It pointed to Biddy. "Some here are of the black, but that machine is of the graaa---ay."
The make shrugged and feigned ignorance. "Of the gray? Is that a new energy source we're working on? I thought we were working on the pink," he responded innocently.
"You are in possession of an illegal, classified material," the machine continued.
The maker scratched his chin. "I was under the impression, after initial tests, that it was of the black. I gave it black energy and it functions just fine with it."
The armored PABs two sets of eyes glowed brightly behind their pitch-black, angled 'visors' and screeched almost inaudibly during whatever process they were performing.
"Error-error-error-error-err-Acknowledged," it blurted quickly. The maker heaved a sigh of relief. Luna could see his body trembling in fear despite keeping a stoic appearance. "You are in illegal possession of machines of the black. These machines have caused damages to the outside and harmed many."
"You cannot put the blame on me when I have yet to register these deliveries, and how do you know they're responsible?" he asked.
"Damages conform with their physical traits," the first explained. "Extensive strength of the larger models conforms with hull deformities in PABs."
The engineer cleared his throat and tried to sound as 'smooth' as possible. "They were meant to arrive to me as a new shipment." He chuckled. "But the idiots tampered with them!" He suddenly became loud and furious, startling the sisters. "They activated and fueled these machines and, as I hadn't checked their programming nor limited their capabilities, all of this occurred!" He sighed and placed a hand on his face. "As for why I have them, I am legally permitted as one of the few allowed to actively experiment and recover machines of older generations for restoration, study, and eventual potential donation to a museum or to make use of them at my discretion. That, and it seems they were at least preprogrammed with the location of my junkyard here."
The first machine stomped forward and pulled the maker towards its visors aggressively. Not liking this, the colossus stomped forward, ignoring Galah's warning. The second armored PAB spun around quickly, bracing for the impact the machine was going to make. It clearly underestimated it as it slid a foot closer to the maker. Massive hands enclosed upon it, forcing the smaller machine into a squeeze, but it was resistant. Slowly, the hands eventually came to a stop, and the segments of the PAB opened, expelling large quantities of super-heated air. The metal hands of the colossus slowly crumpled from the strength of its opponent as it was gradually pushed back.
"Stop!" the maker ordered. "It is meant to protect me and my property," he explained to the first armored PAB. "Your aggressive approach to verify my identity and legal jurisdiction set it off. I never saw a reason to make exceptions to the threats since PABs don't usually come here."
"There are no shipment manifests pertaining to these machines of the black," the second armored machine stated. "Maker error in place. Machines of this standard cannot be shipped without notice."
"Correction: We are not PABs," the first armored machine stated.
"Then what do I c..." The maker caught himself. "What is your designation?"
"Credentials permits divulgence of minor information," the machine declared. Containment, Elimination, Suppression unit 56 series 57-ZZL. Slated for decommissioning thirty seven years, twenty-seven days, four hours, and thirty-seven minutes ago. Postponed until further notice."
"Containment, Elimination, Suppression unit 122 series 3-QFP," the other one declared. "System diagnostics optimal. Functions nominal. Decommission slated in ten years rounded up."
The maker crossed his arm. Luna watched the colossus move towards the wall to pull Rahllup out. "I"m not allowed to work on you even if you had issues without express permission from the ones charged with your construction and regular maintenance," the engineer explained sternly. "That said," he sighed. "I'll still fix all the damaged PABs free of charge." His voice lost energy as he seemed to die inside with every word spoken.
"I don't like this," Celestia said to her sister. "The CES are military-grade machines of very advanced design that are only brought forward when something really bad is happening."
"Like the PABs getting squished by Rahllup and Biddydee?" Luna added.
Celestia shook her head and stared intently at the armored machines. "A large group of PABs would have been able to subdue the two." She looked to the maker, her programs coalescing into a strange mess of code. Stress, was it? "Does he know anything?"
"Hey, wouldn't they know about us?" Luna wondered. "We've been missing for a long time."
"If it was a priority we would have been apprehended already."
The CES picked the engineer up, put him back on his feet, then boxed their heads to the side and slowly left, leaving everyone in a stupor.
"Why did they leave?" Luna asked.
"They're going to verify the new information I've given them, and I have twenty-four hours to register all your friends under my name as active machines while they also investigate whatever happened at the docks and the port, wherever you came from." He dusted himself off and bounced in fright when his colossus dropped Rahllup in front of him. "You idiots are lucky I have such clearances and authorizations to my name. Wasn't easy to get them. I can register you all right away, but at some point they're going to take me away for personal interviews on the incidents."
"What a rush! Such tension!" Dissonance said. "I'm furiously writing multiple notes and plays on my storage drives." They bounced in place, clapping furiously. "I wasn't expecting that. At all!" Their 'teeth' were spinning furiously the whole time they marveled at the events that had just unfolded.
Galah, on the other hand, was still hiding along with the charred machine. Whatever was wrong with them, they weren't going to tell. At least, Galah wasn't going to tell. The sisters were used to the skittishness of the charred machine.
"Rahllup isn't reactivating!" Biddy shouted. She had accompanied the colossus carrying the flame-faced machine over.
"It just never ends with you all!" the engineer complained. He smacked his palm with the back of his other hand while he spoke. "Just. One. Thing. After. Another. No room to breathe!" Rahllup was lowered by the colossus so the maker could get a better look at her. He went along the contours of a deep dent in her torso with his fingers pensively. "Might've shattered something in this ramshackle body of hers," he said while tapping the machine with the back of his hand. "I should be able to fix her right away, maybe even give her an upgrade. I likely have more parts available to me than the one who made you. Mm, what was their name again?"
"We call him 'Pa'," Biddy explained.
"Well, I have more available to me here than this 'Pa'." He looked over his shoulder to the charred machine peeking over the pile serving as its hiding place. "Then I can get back to that bizarre mess of wires and metal." He went to the warehouses, closely followed by a nervous Biddydee and a giant colossus whose sentience was still a mystery to the sisters.
Galah looked around and slowly came out of his hiding spot, visibly drooping from the current in his body lowering and was joined by the sisters and Dissonance.
"Quite a reaction you had there," Dissonance commented slyly. They leaned forward and booped Galah's face. "I figured a dense machine like you wouldn't be so scared of them. Aren't you a military-grade robot?"
"I don't know, but you don't mess with those things." He tapped his head several times with a semi-closed fist. "What were they called?"
"CES," Celestia answered flatly. "Employed during times of crisis within the blue."
Dissonance stared at her. "And those two squishing their weaker siblings counted as a crisis?" he asked derisively.
Celestia shook her head. "As I told my sister, a group of PABs could have subdued them. Judging by the damage incurred and how far she flew, I can come to the conclusion that they weren't sent here just because of the damaged PABs and a few wounded makers because of the stowaway."
"Then...then why would they be out here? Were they already active?" Dissonance asked.
Rahllup came out of the workshop after an hour of work. The extra help provided by the group helped speed things up because, as the engineer had said: "This robot is slapped together with incompatible parts connected by some manner of custom, janky converters for everything and it's a miracle it hasn't collapsed in on itself like a black hole. It's a pile of junk made by a genius."
Using Galah's strange brute power, some relatively new metal plates for the flame-faced giant's new chassis was bent and molded into shape, and after a few hours were done -with some help of course- her internal wiring had been rearranged and proper connectors, converters, resistors, and other mechanical contraptions had been stuffed inside of her. All that had been left to do was to properly connect the metal with molecular clamps. The molecules were forced into interlocking with each other, creating a somewhat clean line of connection, if not because of the differing structures causing some bubbling.
"There. Now we just need to see if it wakes up," the engineer said. His anticipation had him speaking in a hushed tone as he backed away from the work table.
The silence was strenuous as Rahllup didn't seem to want to reactivate, if she even could. Then, her face erupted into a geyser of fire, startling the machine that sat up with a jump and panic before regulating the flow herself.
She was looking around in a panic. "What happened?" she shouted. "Where are those weird machines? My data storage was corrupted in some areas."
"I gave you a diagnostic tool for that," the engineer pointed out. "It will work on its own and have little drain on your own resources," he stated smugly.
Rahllup was hugged by her fellow giant and lifted up. "I was worried I had lost you!" Biddy shouted cheerfully.
"Why?" Rahllup asked.
"Your internals were damaged," the engineer explained. He stepped up to the now-standing machine and starting tapping her newly minted chassis with the back of his curled finger. "You were hit pretty hard. In fact, because of the slap-dash way you were made, the impact disconnected a lot of the parts inside you and damaged a lot of others. It was worse than I first thought."
Rahllup's flames dimmed briefly. "How long was I offline?"
"A few hours," Dissonance butted in. "Quite frankly I'm shocked this caretaker managed to repair you in such a short time."
The engineer was visibly perplexed by the 'caretaker' terminology but chose to ignore it for the time being. "It wasn't short," the maker croaked. "It was almost a whole day." He looked at his arms and sighed. "My body hurts." The flamboyant machines shrugged as his disc-teeth spun around and showed a grinning face. "Well, time for that burnt one."
Luna had been holding its hand the whole time they had been working on Rahllup, keeping it close despite it incessantly wanting to escape. Like before, it was being held down, only this time it was by Biddy and Galah.
"Wow! I feel great! My performance has increased over fifty percent!" Rahllup cheered.
"That's because most of your parts aren't just scavenged scrap metal slapped together," the engineer explained. He watched the stowaway getting dragged to his work table. Everything has already been started up so why not use his workshop? "I also helped in your consumption of black energy. More power for less energy consumed." He coughed and cleared his throat, massaging his throat afterwards. "You'll never get close to the power output of pure blue energy, but you'll be able to run on that amount you brought with you for at least a month or two, and that's including the rations for the triangular one."
"It's Biddydee," the triangular machine corrected. "Or Biddybee."
She was met with intrigue and perplexion. "Why do you have two names?"
The machine tilted left and right. "Because my caretakers could never remember whether my name ended with 'bee' or 'dee', so they just use both now."
"I see." The engineer lowered themselves to the lowest point they could manage to get at eye-level to the stowaway and see any imperfections along their chassis by eye alone. He moved away and walked to one of the many dusty counters nearby and fumbled through the shelves, going through his carefully organized tools and parts. "And this 'Pa' you mentioned, how old is he?"
Biddy took a moment to think. "I don't recall properly since my internal clock wasn't functional at the time, but I reckon he's around eighty, ninety years old?"
The engineer exhaled from his nose. "So he still has quite a bit of life still left in him." He grabbed some pliers and started to pull apart some of the more gnawed through parts of the stowaway's chassis. "I have to admit that I am very eager to meet with your maker--"
"Caretaker," Biddy corrected immediately.
The maker paused and stared at her in annoyance before resuming his work. "Your caretaker, and exchange words of our work with him." He sighed and his shoulders drooped for a short moment. "It would be nice to speak with someone with the same enthusiasm for old machines that I have," he mused. "Maybe in a few years I will be able to meet with him," the engineer continued.
Biddy's systems took a moment to understand what she had just heard. "What...what do you mean?" she asked.
"What I said. Meeting him in a few years," the maker explained. "I want to meet with him as soon as I'm free."
"He's already very old," Biddy said. Her tone was a portent of ill things, and she leaned towards the maker with her optics bright.
The maker stopped his work and looked up at the machine. "You said he's only eighty or ninety. He still has a couple of decades at the least."
He was met with silence at first. "What...how old do you of the blue get?"
The maker looked up pensively, taking in a deep breath and shaking his head. "I'm not a doctor, but I think that we can be at least a hundred and fifty, a hundred and sixty? There's some few who have managed to live until two hundred, but they're outliers," he explained.
If she had lips Biddy would have mimed 'two hundred' silently. "Our caretakers can rarely even live to a hundred, let alone your age," she said quietly. "How is it possible that you're all able to live longer than our caretakers?"
Biddy's question was met with a shrug. "The blue? Our bodies simply being different? There's plenty of factors at play," he said. The maker tapped the charred machine with the back of a plasma cutter. "I only know how you machines work and how each iteration can function better and longer than the last. Don't look to me for guidance on the biological."
"That disparage between the two is off-putting," Twilight said. The two sisters looked at her. "Those of the black are massive compared to those of the blue. They're significantly stronger and more durable with not much different intellectually from what I could see. In fact, I thought that those of the blue were far smaller and less likely to survive on their own." She looked to Celestia. "Is it because of medical advances?" she asked.
Celestia shook her head. "Medical advances can only go so far, Twilight. The body decays on its own. You can prolong it with the right treatments, but there's not much else that can be done. The differences between those of the black and those of the blue can't be waved away through that alone."
"For whatever reason, the energies they both used affected them differently, at least, that's what I think," Luna surmised. "It's quite difficult to know what changed precisely, but we can at least say it was the energies."
Twilight nodded and looked away as her mind wandered. "I wonder what kind of effects the other energy had on the makers," she thought aloud.
"Whatever knowledge we had of that is long gone," Celestia said. "It's unfortunate, and I absolutely loathe lost knowledge," she growled.
"Well, I could always use a time travel spell to go back there and-ow!" Both princesses had clonked Twilight on the head with their ring hands. "But I would be extra careful! I already have experience with it! Why can't I--Ow! Stop hitting me on the head!"
The engineer seemed to have become dour. His expression returned to the frustration and anger of seeing the sisters back in his junkyard, and there seemed to have been a pit forming within him after hearing such knowledge. To take his mind off of what he just learned, he decided to look outside after taking a small break from working with the damaged wires. He saw the flame-faced giant doing cartwheels. "I think your fellow is enjoying her new chassis and energy flow a bit too much there," he croaked.
"Oh. Well, she's always been the more energetic of us two. To be honest, I only came here to see the wildlife."
"Eeeeh..." The maker threw a piece of metal out and started digging at the wires and cables within. "There's not much of that left here. Most things are maintained artificially. The animals that you do see tend to be small in stature, but boy can they be vicious. Turned into real pests," he laughed. "You're safe since you're a machine, but don't try to bring them towards people, please."
Rahllup was bouncing in place under the watchful eye of the sisters and Galah, throwing dust and dirt in every direction. "This is amazin'!" she shouted. "Ah'm barely spending a fraction of energy of what ah normally would if ah was still using mah older parts!"
"Maybe calm down before you eat up all your reserves," Dissonance chastized. "You can probably siphon off of this caretaker, but that stuff is his, and we don't have the money to pay him."
The flamboyant machine was waved off by Rahllup. "Doesn't matter. By the time we start reaching low energy levels we'll already be going back home."
The sisters looked on silently but felt their internals constrict.
"If you shut off from overexertion of your internal systems then we won't be able to take you back," Galah grumbled.
The whole area began to shake suddenly, making all the metallic piles vibrate aggressively, banging, clinking, and scraping against each other. The setting sun in the distance was slowly being devoured by an incoming flow of clouds with a faint, blue tint.
"Is this another one of your weather phenomenons here in the blue?" Rahllup asked whilst trying to keep herself from falling.
"No," Celestia and Galah said together.
Luna pointed at the sky. "Hey look, it's the blue circles again. I saw them when we were at the black. Hmmm. There's more than before," she mulled over.
The group followed her finger to several massive shapes in the sky, just beyond the field of vision. Tidal waves of blue energy flowed from the clouds, washing over the city and its buildings. The group could almost hear whatever was producing that noise. The noise was higher pitched than any maker could perceive, but only Galah seemed capable of perceiving it at least to a very small extent. A light buzzing.
The engineer stepped outside of his workshop with Rahllup, leaving the now-deactivated stowaway on the table. "I thought I was going to enjoy the brief moment of respite after figuring out how to deactivate that pockmarked thing." He scratched the back of his head and put a hand on his hip. "What in the world is that?"
Everyone turned to face him. "You don't know?" Dissonance asked with shock in his voice.
"Wh-eehgbtbth. You expect me to know everything?!" the maker shouted. He gestured to the sky with an open hand. "I don't know what those things are supposed to be! I think they already asked me about those things a while ago." He placed his hands on his hips and leaned forward, as though that would help him see better. "There's far more than there used to be, and I don't like that emission of blue energy. I don't know of any equipment that can produce that much wake."
The orbs slowly moved away, taking the tremors along with them. The land calmed itself, shaking less and less until it became just a small murmur in the feet, then nothing. There was only silence left behind as the city tried to assess what had just happened.
"Well, that was a marvelous thing to bare witness to," Dissonance said in admiration. "I'm super curious as to what those things are."
"I remember seeing them when we arrived in the black. It was really far away and a lot of lights were pointing at them," Luna said. "I think some tiny things flew after them, but it was very far away, and I possess no zooming function."
Celestia nodded. "I remember that."
"Lights and tiny flying things, hmmm?" the engineer repeated. He looked between each machine and pointed to his damaged wall. "Fix the hole you made or you can't stay here and I'll alert the PABs of your presence here."
Rahllup's flames flared up brightly. "Ya work on us then tell us to leave?"
"You still owe me for everything I did for you," the engineer said. He stepped forward and stared the giant straight into what served as its face. "The least you can do is fix my wall."
It took a few seconds, but Rahllup's flames flickered and she backed away. "Yer right. Ah was lettin' mah heat get to mah systems." She put her arms behind her and twisted her torso around as she looked about. "So, what do I use and what do I do?"
"I'll let my personal construction take care of that," the engineer said smugly.
"But it can't speak."
The engineer chuckled. "Doesn't need to. Meanwhile, I think it's best we don't linger on what just happened. We can't know what they were, so staying stuck on that thought could cause unwanted imagination and panic." He paused for a moment, mentally slapping himself. "Do you feel those kinds of things? This whole 'sapient machine' thing is still new to me."
Rahllup shrugged. "Beats me. Haven't had much ta fear, but ah have had stuff ta worry about."
"Well then...just don't, uh, worry about it?" the engineer spoke with hesitation.
Luna and Celestia stayed up all night to aid in the repair of the stowaway, but they were also eager to explore the city with their new friends. They had already reacted explosively to the city of the blue from the outside, how would they react when they saw it functioning on the inside? Oh, but the makers didn't like the appearance of either machine. Luna wondered if it would be like those of the gray who had simply grown accustomed to the appearance of the two that their mere presence did nothing. Would it be that way with those of the blue? The more Luna compared her stored information on those of the gray and compared it to those of the blue, the more 'sensitive' they seemed to become.
"Do you think the makers of the blue are more fragile than those of the gray?" Luna blurted out.
The engineer let out a tired yawn and placed his measuring tools down. "Fragile in what way?"
Luna moved her arms about, trying to come up with a proper response. "Well, physically, are makers more fragile? Psychologically, are they more fragile?"
"Oh, becoming philosophical, are we?" The maker leaned against a desk and heaved a loud sigh. "Depends on who you look at and the pool you use to determine averages. Most people of the black are, on average, bulkier than us in the blue, that must is true." He wiped some grime off of his hands with a dirty hand towel. "As for the psychological, that is very hard to tell. Some people are more sensitive than others, then there's a variety of other factors, I suppose, like how each robot's operating system functions differently. You can have a hundred robots of the same make with the same things about them all around, but three of them get a weird glitch in their OS after an update despite the others getting nothing."
The blue machine looked towards the stowaway. "I see. So, there's no true standard?" she asked. The engineer shook his head. Luna looked back in her storage to the images of the skypiercer that had started everything. "But everyone must like something, no? A lot have a passion for the same things. Similar fears. Similar loves?"
"Yes," the engineer grumbled. "That's about as far as I can answer you on this. I'm no psychologist," he mused. "Although that would be very helpful in understanding how your mind is even working," he mumbled to himself while shaking his head. He yawned once again and stretched himself. "The air is getting chilly and I can see the sun starting to rise. I'll turn on this charred thing and get it back online. I've fixed most of the holes and replaced a lot of the cabling, but I'm hardly even close to done with it. Still haven't found a good voice box for it yet," he said while fiddling with the back of the machine.
Its activation was almost immediate. The stowaway slammed hard into the face of the engineer, knocking him over, or, at least, it would have if it weren't for the reflexes of the two sisters jumping to him and shielding his face just in time.
"That was close," Celestia commented.
"Uh, well, thank you for that." He rubbed the back of his head and looked over the newly activated machine. "What kind of robot activates that fast? It's unheard of. Such a bizarre machine," he noted. "Well," he started whilst patting it on the back. "You're free to go for the time being. Explore the city with the giants, the fluffy thing, and the prototype that doesn't pay attention to anything," he told the stowaway.
The group noticed Galah walking around absent-minded, banging into the back of the engineer's colossus and falling to the ground, still 'walking'.
Celestia facepalmed and shook her head in annoyance. Dissonance jumped forward, stared at Galah, then started laughing.
"Comedic timing!" the flamboyant machine laughed loudly. "I'm saving this to my special hard drive!"
"He, uh...he doesn't really care about the well-being of others, does he?" the engineer croaked.
The sisters remained silent. The charred machine was observing its patched body. The new parts were creating a mismatched divide between the burnt metal and the shiny, polished material. It landed on its feet and squatted several times to test its flexibility. Its repairer was expecting it to be as enthusiastic as Rahllup but was shocked to see the stowaway banging its shiny parts against the table and any surface it could find. Luna and Celestia were forced to hold it down to prevent it from harming itself.
"What is wrong with everything you bring to me?" the engineer complained.
"It doesn't seem to like the look of its new plating," Celestia explained as she held the machine in place.
"Then just get some black paint or something!" He massaged his temple. "I'm really tired right now and I need a break. You've been temporarily assigned to me while the paperwork is going through. Go walk through the city with the other weirdos to let me sleep in peace." He chuckled. "Being your own boss means you get to sleep for as long as you want. Ha."
"Do you have a specific time you wish for us to return at?" Luna asked.
The engineer already has his back turned and was going back to his home. He threw his arms up into the air at the question. "As late as possible!" he shouted. Luna overheard him mumbling to himself afterwards, however. "They reacted negatively to those lights in the black? What are they hiding from us here that something runn--" his mumbling was cut off after he closed the door.
"I'll get the others," Luna said to her sister.
She was quick to reactivate the two giants who had gone into sleep mode several hours ago. To her surprise, Dissonance was also an early waker, although in its case it was because it was eager to explore the city of the blue. The colossus was agreeable enough to open the door leading to the engineer's junkyard, letting the group leave without destroying the wall again, but now they were outside.
"So...what do we do now?" Galah asked. "Nothing I know of is still around. All got repurposed or decommissioned." He held his arm up with the palm of his hand and leaned against his free one. "Could've done with that artillery piece," he mused. "That was really fun to watch."
"How about a simple trek around the city, then we can see what passes for entertainment here," Dissonance suggested. "Preferably none of the boomy kind."
The others gradually agreed and turned to the sisters that were now joined by the charred machine.
"We will guide you, then," Luna said. "We at least know what is within, or at least what to expect."
"Lead the way," Rahllup said as she gestured a hand forward.
Being early in the day, not many makers were around. Instead, the usual nightly public of machinery running tirelessly left and right throughout the city populated the streets. Most of the buildings were still slumbering cozily, but there were those here and there that had remained on throughout the night, garnering attention with bright, neon lights and flying images in the sky. Holograms of a sort projected by multiple tiny drones dancing together in the air.
"That image is moving...in the sky," Dissonance said in awe.
"That's amazin'," Rahllup said. "That'd sure help a lot of us at the farm." She tapped her arm. "Could use it to keep those bugs out, then we could just focus on maintaining the fields and keeping them healthy."
"And we wouldn't have to hurt them anymore," Biddy said. She seemed somewhat relieved at such an idea.
"Is it a really expensive luxury that only a few people can afford?" Dissonance asked the three machines of the blue.
Celestia shook her head. "Hmm. These movements are becoming a natural response now," she mused. "These are regular business expenditures. Under the many loans and rentals that can be provided, the business can either pay for those to attract the attention of aerial vehicles or garner attention from a greater distance than just the mostly immediate vicinity."
The three stared at them, dumbfounded.
"Why would they want the attention of the planes," Rahllup asked flatly.
"Not planes, aerial vehicles."
The flame-faced giant exchanged looks with Biddydee. "That's what I just said: Planes."
"Makers of the blue have access to flying vehicles they can utilize," Celestia explained.
Dissonance scoffed. "It's like talking to an encyclopedia for exposition." They stroked the scarf around their neck pensively. "And how do they even move around in a three-d space like that?"
"A screen inside displays paths created by markers. This gives a pseudo two-dimensional road in a three dimensional environment." She started counting off on her fingers, jittering with glee as she did so. "There's buoys on the floors, on the buildings, and through satellites that project the paths, there's paths that allow you to go higher or lower, with signs and rules put in place allowing the change to be seamless, there's-"
"Okay! Okay." Dissonance raised their hands. "I get it," they stated calmly. "Don't start listing everything and how it works or we're going to be stuck here until it's night again, and I'm not interested in staying in such a place d-Ah! What is that?!" the flamboyant machine shouted.
It took a while for her to register the shape, but Luna recognized it almost immediately: It was the flying insect creature from long ago, attacking creatures in the air and draining them of their fluids. Its red-orange wings patterned in flowing waves and curls flapped energetically to keep their owner in the air. The blue machine raised a finger to it, but it drew away from her.
"It's a Red Ratam," Celestia explained. "At least, that's one of the names. It's still being debated on what to call this species of insect."
"And, um, what does it do?" Dissonance's teeth had spun to become a terrified expression of a face looking to the side with shrunk pupils and exposed, clenched teeth.
"They're harmless to us. They feed on the living, not the material we're comprised of," the white machine explained.
"Really now?" Dissonance grabbed their chin and leaned forward, narrowing their gaze on the small insect. "And how do they feed?"
"They catch their prey in the air and drain them of their fluids."
The three machines of the black slowly turned to look at her with as expressive emotions they could: Rahllup's flames had turned into a tiny sputter of sparks, Biddydee was drooped forward loosely, and Dissonance stared at her with their false facial features of stunned horror.
"They even attack animals several times larger than them, but it's dangerous because they can be easily squished," Celestia continued cheerfully. Luna noticed that she seemed to be enjoying teaching the knowledge she held to the three of the black. "Some scholars believe they might have been infected by an energy from the older times, hence their coloration and thirst for blood."
The charred machine was quiet for the most part. It was staying close to Luna, analyzing everything around them. Per the blue machine's calculated theories, it was possible the stowaway didn't know how to interact with its new environment. The material was different, the architecture was vastly altered compared to those of the black, and everything was far more compact. In fact, it was hesitant to even get close to doors and windows despite having done so so easily when the group had first entered the city. It was possible that its new entrails were aiding in its better functioning, or simply that it now felt out of its element since the first bout of exploration was completed.
"Hmm, maybe when the makers are more active you'll be able to enjoy what's around?" Luna said to the charred machine. It stared at her silently. "You'll like it. It's like being in a hive, maybe. You're invisible without hiding!"
Celestia turned to face her. "That doesn't work with robots. You took that from something," she chastised.
"I have to say, princesses, I don't like where this is going," Twilight explained.
"How so?" Luna asked.
"Well, you showed those giant blue discs or orbs -whatever they are- at the start of your story," Twilight started. "Then they appear above the gray for seemingly no reason and are approached like some kind of threat."
Celestia nodded. "It would seem that way,"
"And then there's a ton of the disks expelling a plethora of blue energy all over the city!"
"Right."
The lavender alicorn looked between the two multiple times, her irritation beginning to boil over. "With all due respect, and I respect you very much, I feel like you're lying between your teeth!"
The two princesses tapped their maws in response.
"While I do understand the concern, Twilight, you'll know soon enough why we truly don't know what happened!" Celestia explained.
Luna grumbled and leaned back. "We saw some things before we were buried," she croaked. The lunar princess simulated a tired huff. "Strange things that terrified us to our very cores."
"Our many many cores," Celestia butted in playfully.
Twilight gave her a blank stare. "What?"
"Ignore her," Luna suggested. "To be honest, these next few sequences are hard for us to go through again."
"We...tend to ignore them, and for good reason," Celestia added. "They're not fun to reminisce on."
The lavender alicorn turned to face the resuming story and gulped with dread. "So I was right," Twilight mumbled to herself.
Rahllup clapped her hands together. "Ah'm eager to see what to expect in this place. We'll have lots to do for days to come, ah'm sure!" she said excitedly.
The pair heard a low humming mixed with crackling above and looked towards the source. A few flying vehicles had lowered themselves to reach the city's defined paths.
"The night workers return," Luna said aloud. "There were usually more before."
Rahllup pointed to them. "Ah wanna to ride on one of those," she stated firmly.
"You're too fat to be on one of the normal vehicles," Gahllup explained.
The flame-faced machine stared at him. "You mean I'm heavy."
"Pffft, that's the same thing," Dissonance interjected. "You're just trying to color yourself differently using fancy words." They cackled. "I've seen it during my shows. Was pretty funny to see the caretakers getting drinks splashed on their faces."
"Enough!" Biddydee shouted. "Let's get to exploring, first. I want to see if we can find other wildlife here."
"There's some near the multiport," Celestia realized. "Galah wasn't paying attention and tumbled down a hill surrounding the location. There were tiny creatures that had burrowed in the dirt."
"We can explore while we go there, then," Dissonance suggested. "Like that I get everything I wanted and more!"
Luna shook her head and gently tugged on the stowaways hand, taking it with her.
"If I could smell the air it would probably be very bitter," Biddydee thought aloud.
Still early, the crew decided to take in the architecture of the surroundings. The three of the black just stared in both awe and disgust. The uniformity didn't gel well with them and, while the flamboyant actor was still fascinated by all of it, the three were quick to shoot down the idea that having an architectural standard outside of the internal structure killed any true personality the city could have. With that said, Celestia was quick to pinpoint a more artistic area of the city for the group to bear witness to.
They had arrived at a massive park with intertwining pathways lined with white brick. The paths curved around each other and rose and sunk above and below each other respectively. The grass and leaves of the trees had autumn colors to them, creating fields and slow raining 'petals' of gold. The surrounding buildings each had a different motif to them: Bakeries designed to resemble various types of pastries, pies, or other confectioneries; toy stores being as tall and as flamboyantly exaggerated as possible -second only to Dissonance- , often having extended rings on each floor to put toy statues or the mascots of the company that owned the store on display.
"What is this place?" Dissonance asked. They had their hands joined and couldn't stop looking left and right. "We don't have anything like this in the black!" They bounced in place. "And so many colors!"
"Ech," Rahllup sneered. "It's hideous and tacky. Too much! A bit of personality is fine, but when you become so flamboyant-!"
She couldn't find the right words to describe everything, gesturing to the whole of the area multiple times while looking towards Dissonance.
"You get a you," Biddydee interjected whilst looking at Dissonance.
The actor 'harumphed' and turned their back to the group in response.
Whilst they were philosophizing the purpose of the district, the stowaway let go of Luna's hand and slowly moved towards a path underneath a small stone archway-bridge. It moved a sign saying 'no entry' and hid in the darkness. The blue machine chased after her. The area was dank, dirty, and very dark, but Luna's ambient lights revealed what was hidden before her. Humidity had coalesced on the walls into a slimy, slippery substance that sloughed off the brick walls. Several webs and bits of vegetation hung down from the ceiling in thin strands and arcs. Luna also noted the presence of semi-translucent bubbles growing everywhere, varying in size from the tip of her fingers to the size of her head. It was an odd growth that was only amplified by a strange blue haze flowing throughout the small area.
"Looks like the blue energy," Luna pondered aloud. She poked one of the lumps and saw it burst into a sparkling shower of jelly. "What's this?" she pondered. Within the entrails of the bubble swimming about the contents were tiny, worm-like insects. The blue machine also noticed that there was some pink and fairly faint traces of red mixed into the substances. Baring it no mind, the machine continued her chase after the stowaway.
Based on the pre-programmed knowledge she possessed, Luna expected the charred machine to be hiding away in a corner of the area. To her surprise, this was not the case. The charred machine was using everything around the tunnels to make some kind of nest replete with slime and strange little creatures scurrying about. A giant, head-shaped, armored insect crashed into Luna's chest before hurrying away. The charred machine was crouched down, trying to pull out a stone from the base of the wall when it paused and stared at Luna. Several of the insects had gathered around and onto it already.
They vaguely resembled the humongous ones back at the black, but these ones were covered in a shiny chitin and didn't seem to have any eyes. Whenever they moved, Luna could distinctly perceive 'tack tack' noises, and judging by the debris left by one climbing up a brick wall, it seemed that these things had something akin to claws burrowing into the stones.
"Why are you down here? Is it because you feel more comfortable down here with these things than up there?" Luna asked the stowaway. It preferred not to answer and grabbed one of the giant insects from the ground, revealing the two, finger-length claws on all six feet sticking straight down into the ground. "You don't feel comfortable in this city?" Luna asked it. The stowaway stared at the bug. "You thought we were going to another forest of the black, I suppose." Luna leaned down, touching the floor with her 'feet'. "Staying down here won't be good for you," she explained. "You might feel more comfortable down here, but it isn't your home. You won't be staying here forever. Why not explore with us? Like that you can stay close to familiar faces and see things in safety," Luna proposed. "My sister and I will stay by your side until you're comfortable. You'll be able to go back to those giant bugs in the black after we're done exploring here, or you can keep traveling with us. It's up to you." The blue machine noticed the metal of the stowaway crumbling and deactivated her hand to get the rust and debris away.
It took several minutes of waiting until the charred machine put the bug down and got the others off of its body. It grabbed Luna's hand and followed her out of the tunnels to the group still arguing outside. Celestia was the only one to welcome them.
"You've returned," Celestia noted.
"I've made a deal with our stowaway. We need to watch it until it becomes comfortable enough in this city," Luna explained."
The white machine looked at the stowaway then back to her sister. "But they chose to come with us."
"My observations concluded that they did not think their actions through."
"Then it can accompany us as we travel," Celestia said.
The stowaway pointed at the group and made a screeching noise. As it turned out, while Luna had been gone, the group hadn't stayed put yelling at each other. In fact, they weren't even arguing. They were playing around with toys they had found.
"They went in there," Celestia said. "It opened early."
She pointed to the store that was, visible through the giant windows that made up its street-facing walls, in disarray. Many makers were standing outside of it, staring at the group. Luna saw that two more PABs had been planted head-first into the golden ground, breaking the once-serene landscape. The interior of the giant toy store looked like it had shelves rearranged with toys and giant figurines everywhere. When Luna approached them silently, her gaze going to the toys they had to the store clued the group in to what was going through her processes.
"We tried to fix everything!" Rahllup was quick to blurt out. "We tried to fix it all, but it's kinda hard when you don't know what goes where or how."
"We just took these things and left," Dissonance explained. They put a hand to their face and said 'tee hee'. "We said our owners will pay for any of the damages as well as the toys. We were the backups since the main service bots are in maintenance."
"That's theft," Luna chastised.
Galah pushed her away from the shrinking actor. "It's okay. We're going to bring them back at the end of the day anyways. They don't know what our toys look like so I thought it would be interesting for them to see anyways."
"And he was right!" Rahllup proclaimed. She was holding a flat object covered in a variety of bulbs housed in projector casings, able to mold their shape to go in any desired direction. "This thing's suppose to teach you 'bout how to pass current and light up each individual bulb. Normally, you need a battery, but--"
Dissonance grabbed the connecting wires and attached them to their chest. The bulbs flashed suddenly and brightly, causing makers watching the group from the projected direction to be blinded and scream in pain and horror.
"Ah! My eyes!" one of them yelled.
The two robots jolted their heads to the source of the sound and saw the victims of their experiment and exploded in laughter. The toy was ripped angrily out of their hands by Biddydee.
"Give me that," she growled. "Sorry," she yelled to the makers who waddled away. She flung the toy at the head of Rahllup, making it bounce and shatter on the ground.
Rahllup and Dissonance leaned over to better see the remains. "Oh. Well. Guess we're not returning that toy," Rahllup remarked.
"You idiots! We haven't even been here for two days that you've already gone and destroyed a store and hurt caretakers!" she yelled angrily.
"Haven't we been here for three days?" Galah asked.
"Doesn't matter!" Biddydee was quick to rebut. "We'll get those terrifying armored ones that nearly destroyed Rahllup around if this keeps up!"
The idea of the CAS reemerging quickly silenced the two. The toy couldn't be recovered, so Celestia gathered the remains and dropped them into a cylindrical object laying on the ground of the park. Its interior glowed a faint blue that grew and weakened regularly. She then pressed a button on the sides and it immediately belched out blue flames that incinerated the waste left within it.
"Clean," the white machine stated energetically.
"You, uh, keep active furnaces around your city to burn up trash?" Rahllup asked weakly.
"They're not furnaces, but the idea is the same, yes," Celestia answered.
Leaving the crime scene, the group bore witness to the gradual awakening of the city from its nightly daze. The young ones were accompanied by their much larger parents to attend their schools, but seeing the two giants walking down the street delayed their arrivals significantly.
"Why're they so scared of us?" Rahllup wondered. She watched as a large group of makers fled with their progeny across a street into multiple large alleyways, bumping into robots and other makers as they ran. "It's like they've never seen a giant robot before."
Dissonance and Galah exchanged looks.
"To be fair," Dissonance started. "they've never seen robots of your make." "
That, and your face is made of fire," Galah added.
"Not my fault Pa made me like this." Rahllup's flames flickered. "Said it was artistic or something."
"After a while of seeing you not damage anything, the makers will become accustomed to your presence," Celestia explained.
"Star Slicer?" a young voice called out questioningly.
Galah and Dissonance both laughed loudly. "Like that's going to happen!" Galah laughed.
Dissonance put their hands on their hips and leaned forward. "You walked through a wall in the toy store," they said. "You caused one of the staircases to collapse and demolish several shelves below it. And we warned you several times to stop, but you kept going!"
"That's Star Slicer!" the young voice yelled out exuberantly
"We haven't seen Luna in almost three years. She wouldn't be...!"
"I suppose this is a good opportunity for you to learn to not throw your bulk around," Luna said. The charred machine sputtered in response.
"Wh-Is it laughin' at me?" Rahllup asked. She was incredibly insulted.
"No," Luna was quick to answer. "It's glitching."
Celestia cast a side glance to her sister but said nothing.
"Honestly, those of the blue should be making things less fragile. We had no issues moving around back home," Biddybee lamented.
"Well, we still had to watch out for glass," Rahllup added.
"Star Slicer!" a pair of voices shouted.
"No! Don't get close to them! We don't know what's going on!"
"Who keeps saying that?" Galah wondered. He crossed his arms in annoyance. "That's getting irritating. We don't have any star slicers,"
Two small figures weaved through the group and clung to Luna's legs. The charred machine jumped back in surprise and looked at the culprits. Everyone stared at them. At the tiny makers. The children began to cry, dirtying Luna's chassis with tears and snot. Rahllup and Biddydee watched silently while Dissonance took in the scenery and Galah became absent-minded. Only the charred machine seemed upset; It was hunched over and had its fists clenched.
"C-come back!" the female accompanying them called out weakly amidst the machinery towering over her.
"Well, go on then," Rahllup told her loudly. "We're not gonna bite."
"We literally can't," Biddy added flatly.
The two spread apart, leaving the female to hurry forward in a panic towards her children. She paused in front of Luna once the machine made eye contact, and her demeanor changed.
"Greetings, owner," Luna said.
"Owner?" Galah repeated.
"Luna, why are you here? What happened?"
"I left," the machine said.
She was met with a silent stare. "Were you stolen? Did someone steal you? Who is your current owner?"
"You are still my current owner," the machine continued monotonely.
The maker was getting more and more frustrated. "Tell me what happened!"
"I left."
A hand dragged along the female's face as she tried to get a straight answer from the machine. Before she could continue trying, Celestia floated in front of her. The maker's expression changed to that of utter shock and disbelief, and her body deflated.
"Wh...but...but there's only one model...How...When? We never--"
"I was taken from a knowledge center by my sister, Luna." She extended a ring hand. "My name is Celestia. How may I help you?"
The maker's eyes darted left and right between the two equine-esque machinery. "What? Sisters? But you're machines! Unless..." She started to think, becoming unaware of what was happening around her.
"Woah! There's another!" the smaller of the infants shouted.
They surrounded Celestia, looking her over in awe.
The older of the two nodded. "Since Star Slicer is designed around the moon, then maybe we should give her a name and a symbol too," he proposed to his brother.
"Kids, that machine is not o--"
The female was interrupted by Celestia raising her extended hand, gesturing for her to stop. "It is okay. I have not had many interactions with the makers outside of the information I sifted through when I was still linked to the core of a data center and archive."
The two children mumbled with each other, trying to find something, while Galah 'teleported' next to the female, startling her when she noticed him.
"So you're the one Luna was attached to," he noted with boredom. "She's very patient with them as well." He shook his head. "Thought for sure that the white one wouldn't like them," he mumbled aloud.
"What are you?!"
Galah turned to face her. "Oh, I'm a prototype. My name is Galah. They rescued me from a truck some time ago, right before we left for the black."
"You went to the black?!" the maker exhaled. "And a truck? We were told one of the machines to be studied had gone missing." Her eyes darted between bits of information only she could see. "How are you even functional?"
Her question was met with a shrug. "I dunno. I think the one that was overwatching me just took very good care of me." He looked down to the holes still present in his chassis. "Although he could've done a better job. Should maybe ask the engineer if he can fix these. Maybe he has something new this time."
"Sky Light!" the children exclaimed.
"With a sun as her symbol!" the youngest blurted out.
"But what color?" the older pondered. "What will it look like?"
"Make it purple!"
The older sibling stared at his brother with disdain. "Suns aren't purple, stupid!"
"It's a pretend sun! It can be whatever color I feel like!"
The two started arguing aggressively when Luna separated them. "Fighting like that will get you nowhere, young ones. You should ask my sister, since she is the one you're going to name and color, no? It's her decision, after all."
They looked to the white machine then back to Luna. "But is she like you? Isn't she just another machine?" the youngest asked.
"They're all like me," Luna said calmly.
While the children met the information with a simple 'ooooo', the female met it with another emotion, or rather, a mixture of emotions both elated and horrified.
"I want your sun to be purple!" the younger one yelled at Celestia.
"Why not a mixture of colors," the white machine proposed. "Green and purple could work, but you need an interesting design as well." Her eyes lit up for just the briefest of moments, capturing the children's attention. "I have over a billion different sun designs in my database. I could show you them at your earliest convenience."
"You...you all aren't being controlled remotely?" the woman stammered.
"No, why would we be?" Dissonance said.
They had poked their head out from behind Rahllup, and the reaction the maker had was not surprise, but disgust.
"Eugh!" she shouted whilst raising an arm.
Both Rahllup and Galah exploded in laughter, pointing at the appalled actor.
"Well, excuuuuuse me, princess. I have my own beauty standards!" Dissonance proclaimed proudly.
"You can laugh," the woman whispered. "This...this is amazing. It's what we've all been theorizing about the robots. The advanced technology never caused such anomalies, it's the blue energy that--"
"Gonna stop ya right there," Rahllup interjected. "Ah ain't no mamby-pamby machine of the blue, alright?" she pointed to her chest with a thumb. "I'm a machine of the black! Always have been!"
"But you've only gained sapience since you came here, no?" the female asked.
"No." She grabbed Biddy and hugged her close with one arm. "We've been active over fifty years, and we've been aware for nearly as long as that time."
The sisters noticed a dozen CAS robots running in the background down the street, eliciting the attention of the makers who thought they were new models of PAB.
"But...but that goes against all our theorems and calculations!" the maker shouted in despair. "This is absolutely fascinating!"
Rahllup flinched. "That's a mood swing if I ever saw one."
"More like a mood whiplash," Dissonance joked.
"Are you going to come back home?" the children asked Luna.
The blue machine shook her head. "No." She looked to the female, ignoring the whining coming from the infants. "I left because someone called to me. Something in the system. I was called to the black as well."
"But they're not connected to the system," both Luna and the maker said at the same time.
There was a pause of silence. "Would you like to visit our home?" the maker proposed. "My husband would be fascinated to meet your..." She cleared her throat, giving her mind some time to adjust. "Your friends, although I don't think we would all fit. Your service station is still there, however. Unused." She looked to her upset children. "Are you sure you don't want to come back? The children were distraught when you left."
Luna shook her head. "I have too much to discover." She looked at her hands. "I have learned so much, evolved beyond what I once was when I looked upon the skypiercer outside of our window at night. However, I have no qualms with regularly contacting you now that I am more aware of emotions. It hasn't escaped me that I hurt you when I left," she explained.
"I will aid her with establishing a communication basis with your household," Celestia said. "Tonight we can visit you."
A muffled thumping echoed between the tall buildings surrounding the group.
"That would be fantastic. Thank you," the maker said. "Now, I think we're going to be forced to take a taxi to your school and get me to work on time." She sighed. "My boss is going to be furious." The maker cast a glance over her shoulder. "Or maybe not," she said gleefully.
The children were angrily shoved away from Luna by the stowaway who hid away behind the blue machine. They fell on their rears, and the youngest started crying.
"Hey!" the maker shouted angrily.
Luna and Celestia shook their heads. The white machine grabbed the charred machine aggressively and pulled it out of its hiding spot behind her sister. It didn't escape her that the children seemed to have paled after the push.
"What was that for?" Celestia yelled. "Apologize to them at once!"
The charred machine pouted and turned its head in response, but Luna wasn't going to let it slide this time.
"You acted out of jealousy. That's not good," Luna said. Her voice remained calm but held a hint of threat to it. "To act upon that jealousy will chase those you love away." She raised a finger. "Will you renege on your agreement with me? Because if you keep acting on impulses like that, we won't stay around anymore, and you'll be left alone in this city. Alone and lost with nowhere to go." She leaned forward. "Are you going to continue like that?"
The maker watched in stunned silence at the display and stared in awe as the stowaway reluctantly moved towards the children, make an ear-splitting screech, then slowly walked away, its head down and arms dragging limply at its sides.
"Apologies," Luna said. "It is still fairly 'young' when it comes to how to act." She checked the infants before moving away. "They only have minor scratches. The reaction is more from the shock than the actual wounds." She helped the two up to their feet and bid the family a good day.
The group watched them leave silently and waited for the emotions to subside. The maker gave one last look over her shoulder, her gaze fixated on Celestia. Meanwhile, the charred machine stayed away silently with its back turned to everyone.
"What's this 'skypiercer' you were talkin' about?" Rahllup asked.
"It's a building that reaches the lower atmosphere. They tend to reach the stratosphere, although a few can be tall enough to reach the mesosphere. Those ones act as space elevators at times," Luna explained. "There's one nearby that I could show you. We should be able to see it from a far enough distance." She looked around first, a hand resting on the side of her face. "The nearest data center should have a high enough area of elevation for us to see it."
"Lead the way then," Dissonance said.
"I can't wait to see a skypiercer again, and the faces you'll all make when you see one for real," Galah said.
The group spent a few hours traveling the streets before they reached a familiar, giant dome. Familiar, but not identical to the one Luna had visited so long ago. They used one of the floating pathways to reach one of the higher floors of the dome reserved for the machines' entry.
"Why exactly do you need buildings this massive?!" Rahllup shouted. "You could make a tremendous farm here. Would be perfect, I'm sure." She looked around and stepped out of the way of a machine coming from the pipe onto the balcony. "Not sure how your plants work, though."
"It's a data center," Galah explained. "Houses most if not all the information of the blue. They just act as backups most of the time."
"I was one of the cores of one," Celestia said.
Biddy became intrigued. "Really now?" she said. "So that's why you seem to know so much." The white machine nodded in response.
"And that's the sky-piercer," Luna said.
The boom echoed through the city again, and several more CAS were seen running towards the source.
"It goes...really high!" Dissonance wheezed in disbelief.
"It just keeps going higher and higher! I couldn't see it well with the clouds when we came in, but now...Why?" Biddy said.
The charred machine turned its head a bit in order to look at the giant tower. It was still upset, but the sheer height and the design of the tower caught its eyes. It leaned forward, joining the others, then pointed.
"Hey look, the blue circles. Ah guess they were coming from the skypiercers," Rahllup noted.
"Not so sure about that, otherwise they wouldn't have appeared above the black," Dissonance noted.
"Think we could jump down from here and land unharmed?" Galah asked. He was slapped across the back of the head for the question.
"Idiot," Biddydee chastised. She shook her head and looked at the skypiercer's strange body. "How does that moving part even work with the rest of the structure? Is it just decorative?"
"If that were the case then it wouldn't be able to float like that," Dissonance disagreed.
Biddy shook her head, and her flames sparked. "More of that weird stuff with the blue."
"I don't know how to do any of that," Dissonance said to absolve themself. "I can't do things like that." They leaned to the side over the solid, white balcony to look past the flame-faced giant. "Oh hey, you have those here too?" they asked.
"They have what too?" Rahllup asked.
"That," Dissonance said while gesturing with a head bob.
The group looked to see something large slowly making its way past the frame of the giant buildings. It was one of the giant box machines that Luna and Celestia had met in the black.
"No," Luna said.
Its body opened up, reshaping to reveal and assemble multiple barrels along the revealed black metal. Black smoke was churning out from its back, devouring the air angrily with its caustic presence.
"The blue lights are glowing," Galah noted. "What's that, a cleaner?"
Luna and Celestia looked up, then a flash of blue followed by white engulfed their vision. Then black. Then nothing.
"I'm sorry Twilight, but when I said that we don't know what happened, we meant it," Celestia explained.
Twilight dropped onto her rear and produced a heavy sigh. "I was, quite literally, on the edge of my seat," she said. "There was so much information you shared there, and then, when you reached what could've explained it all, 'poof'."
Luna rubbed the back of her head. "I know. It's a lamentable thing."
"And not a day goes by that we don't wonder what happened."
The sisters exchanged looks, and while it wasn't apparent whatever emotion the two shared, Twilight could still feel that great regret and pain came with seeing those last images. What was meant to be a trip to discover new machines just like them turned into a devastating bout of destruction. An interminable wait that they weren't even aware of. The group fell into a deep silence from which they refused to get out of as Twilight patiently waited for the sisters to recover from the loss and feelings that were left buried deep within them so long ago. Luna's arms started shaking again before Celestia held them steady.
"Well, perhaps it is time we speak of the more positive aspects that came after that," Celestia said. "I will show you, this time, Twilight Sparkle. I will show you how we became the rulers of pony kind after our past life was destroyed.
"Okay," Twilight said. "I want to get back to your old life and help you recover from the traumas, Princesses. More importantly, I want to help you discover what happened," she stated firmly.
The sisters both laughed in unison.
"Your former student is very loyal to you, sister. Trauma," Luna chuckled.
"Don't mock her determination. I told her of this because I know that she can help us discover the truth despite the time that passed." Twilight was sure she could feel Celestia's warm smile despite not having a mouth.
The sisters reactivated, but everything seemed very dark. It was possible that whatever had blinded them had buried them in rubble. It was potentially an impact that damaged the dome. They would need to work quickly to free themselves and their friends next.
"Perhaps Rahllup and Biddydee will free us quickly?" Celestia thought. "Or they are themselves buried. I should try to get myself out of this and check on Luna."
Despite her whole body being seemingly trapped, the white machine struggled more and more until she started to make divets in her entrapment. Eventually she was starting to become more and more mobile. The sounds of crumbling debris gradually started to reach her, and with a sudden 'pop', she found herself out of her imprisonment and into a dark, small cave. Tiny things skittered away in the darkness, terrified that some kind of monster burst out of the wall.
"Odd," Celestia said. Her systems were taking a while to start up, so she was forced to walk on the hard ground despite not being made for it. Her visibility was aided by the dim, flickering lights of her body, but they did not provide much range. "The rubble formed strangely around us," she noted curiously. The white machine looked around, intrigued by the state of the area that she only heard the movement of stone after the third tremor. The source was a small hole forming in the wall and the tiny pieces of itself rolling off onto the floor. "Sister!" Celestia exclaimed.
She was quick to use the hole to start digging, using her chassis pieces as shovels. Gradually, Luna slid out and landed on her arms and knees. Her lights were glitching, illuminating and dimming erratically. She, too, could not hover.
"What happened?" she asked. "I'll perform a system diagnostic."
"That is a good idea. I'll do it too," Celestia said.
"Nothing wrong with the inside or outside. Energy levels are...erratic," Luna mumbled as her voice fuzzed.
"Then we should wait for our systems to become fully operational before emerging from here. We weren't built for walking," Celestia noted. "I haven't found an exit. We might have to dig our way out."
Over time, the lights coming from the sisters' bodies gradually began to stabilize, and their feet slowly began to push them into the air again, but it wasn't consistent. They would fall down on one foot or be pushed too far up.
"I can't access my internal clock," Luna mentioned. "The pathways to access it are not yet functional," she added.
"Hmm. I can't access mine either. It would be best for us to get out of here and observe the surroundings. We'll join up with the others then go to the engineer's home for a check-up and potential follow-up repairs."
The two looked around, tapping the walls when their lights shut off and causing Luna to nearly fall. "I found the exit," she said.
The two cautiously went through the hole, watching their step while they couldn't reliably hover. Celestia felt it imperative to get out of the area before it collapsed on them. Rubble was never known for its sturdiness or structural stability. They came across multiple diverging paths, and it was often that they went through the wrong ones before finally turning around after reaching a dead end. For what felt like hours, the two navigated the nooks and crannies of the rubble, suspecting that something was wrong, but not approaching the question. They eventually came upon some illumination and a source of wind and followed both.
"Finally," Celestia complained. "That was annoying to travel. What kind of rubble goes on for that long?" she wondered angrily.
"Our systems must be more damaged than we thought if it took that long to free ourselves," Luna complained. "That engineer will need to check on us longer than I would have wanted."
Celestia was the first to get out, and she was met with a sight that was not in any of her storage devices. She looked on in awe at the scenery before her: Tremendously vast, hilly fields of green with an equally tremendous forest to the right and a mountain range to the left. The mountains were covered in dark clouds that clashed with the bright, clear blue sky next to them. The sun shone brightly and powerfully on everything, and it was hard to find any semblance of a shadow or dark area in general. Some outcrops of stone littered the landscape. Leftover rubble? But there was no sign of the blue, nor of the black, Celestia realized. How long would they be able to stay powered on at this rate? How did they even get to this place? She needed to find makers to get information. Any information, on where they had ended up. Just above the treeline, Celestia could make out some smoke stacks. While a forest with smoke often just meant that there was a natural fire occurring to clean the ground of built-up debris, it was their best chance at finding makers and getting back home and to their friends.
She was quick to realize that she was at an elevation compared to the rest of the area, and if she wasn't careful, she would fall straight down. The white machine moved to the side, clinging to the edge of the black, lumpy stone ridge holding her up as Luna slowly moved outside and immediately shielded her optics with an arm.
"Bleugh! It's too bright!" she complained. "Are those search lights?" Luna asked.
"No. It's the sun," Celestia responded with glee.
"What." Luna was taken aback when she managed to look properly at the landscape. Her body began to shake. "What happened to the city? Where is everyone? Were we taken with the rubble and dumped somewhere?" The two flinched when a shadow loomed briefly over them. A giant winged creature had flown overhead from behind them and continued straight into the horizon. "Was that a delele? But there aren't any in the blue."
"This isn't any place we know of, sister," Celestia said. While she seemed excited, there was a hint of chagrin in her voice. "We should look around. We might find our friends," she added.
Their hover feet sputtered in power as they kept close to the wall of their emergence.
"We emerged from a cave," Luna said. "I had just come out of a similar one when I went to recover our stowaway. Odd coincidence." She paused a moment from scraping down along the thin walls, using her chassis to dig into them. "The stowaway must be in a cave somewhere."
"We need information first, however," Celestia said. "I witnessed some smoke near the forest. Whether it was inside or next to it, I'm unsure."
"Why would smoke help us?" Luna asked. "Makers don't make smoke."
The white machine gestured around them as best she could without falling from their place of rest. "There is no sign of the city, and I don't remember there being any forests left over, let alone free mountain ranges."
"Are you suggesting we are in the gray?" Luna scoffed. "There are no thick, gray clouds strangling the sky, sister."
"Well, arguing won't get us anywhere. Let us start with the smoke first, then we can go from there," she said.
"Or, we go to the makers down there," Luna said.
"What?"
There were several figures some ways away from the cave base next to a stone outcropping covered in thick, green bushes. The figures were wearing very colorful clothing and were crouched over to gather whatever the plants possessed, or they were gathering the plants. The two weren't sure.
"Quite vibrant attire," Luna noted with some disgust.
Celestia noticed the tone of her sister had changed and started performing a self-diagnostic on herself. "I don't recall them ever wearing anything." She paused briefly. "Well, if makers are already here, then we should meet with them. I wonder why they're performing those tasks and not robots."
Once at the bottom, the two hurried over to the location. The closer they got, the more they could make out: Several large straw baskets were sitting next to the makers and were being gradually filled to their brim with red, blue, and yellow shapes. Celestia didn't recognize any of them, and the shape of the makers became stranger and stranger. The robots' bodies were slowly beginning to stabilize, and both the lights and their hover technology were slowly returning to standard function, making it easier for them to move and watch each other's recovery progress. Once at the location, Celestia noticed that there were at least twenty currently working in the bushes. A few had climbed up the stones and were throwing what she assumed to be fruits down into more of the large baskets.
"Excuse me," Celestia began. "I am looking for a city of the blue, or any engineers. Do you have one nearby?" she asked calmly.
The figures bounced and pulled back, revealing that these 'makers' were, in fact, something else.
"What is this?" Luna gasped.
The 'makers' were, in fact, very colorful creatures. Quadrupedal, equine, and with a variety of different colors as fur. The pupils of their large eyes gradually shrunk when they noticed what had made the long, multi-tonal sound near them. They stared at the two robots who shared the look, retaining their emotionless expressions, not that they could help it.
"Hello?" Luna yelled out. "Can you understand us?" she asked loudly. She shook her head when the creatures gasped and backed away, knocking a basket of fruit over. "I don't know what these things are, but I don't think they even know our language. They're not robots. I can still detect biological functions," the blue machine told her sister. She dragged a hand across her face.
Celestia moved forward, startling the group who seemed more curious than afraid of what was before them. A few had already fled, though, much to her dismay. The white machine detached parts of her chassis, using them to collect the fallen fruits and place them in the now-upright basket. Those that remained stared in awe as the machine reassembled itself and its systems fully recovered, allowing its body to fully hover and 'hair' to flow fully once again.
"My systems are functional again, sister," Luna announced as she floated up to Celestia. "My energy stores are glitched, however. It fluctuates between one hundred and one hundred and one percent."
Celestia stared at the tiny equine creatures while she held the basket. "I can conclude the same thing, sister." Her lights dimmed briefly. "That implies the air is saturated with refined blue energy, something that is impossible with its properties."
The white machine passed the box to one of the equine creatures who just stared at the box silently. Celestia deposited it gently at their feet, or maybe hooves, and resumed talking with her sister. "We should check our internal clocks," she proposed to her sister.
Both of them paused, and their bodies started shaking while their lights fluctuated wildly in intensity.
"It says it's been a little over three million years since last we activated," Luna wheezed in disbelief.
Celestia remained silent. That explained all the colors everywhere, and the trees, and the hills, and the rocky outcrops, and the mountains, and...Wait. No it didn't! She looked around again, somehow staring past everything yet still taking it in. What happened to the blue? The city? The technology? Their friends?
"Celestia, look," Luna whispered.
One of the equines had an outgrowth on its forehead. It had become engulfed in a blue light that surrounded the entirety of the basket and raised it into the air.
"I thought they were organics," Celestia said.
"They are!"
With some hesitation, one of the equines approached the two machines and spoke to them. Well, they assumed it was speech. Following all the information she retained, Celestia deduced it was speech. The facial movements, the length of time they were producing non-monotonous tones, and the body language they added all amounted to what she believed to be speech. If the two robots wanted to survive in this new world and learn what happened to their home, they would need to follow these creatures. At least, so they could get a foothold.
The two floated after the equines after they had an argument about whatever had been told to Celestia who followed. They eventually entered the forest where they made first contact with the new flora and fauna of the world. Plant-life they had never seen before, animal life that was unique and bizarre to them. The insects seemed relatively small as well. Far different than what Luna had seen underneath that artistic district with the charred machine. However, now was not the time to take in everything. After some walking, the group happened upon an artificial clearing where these small equines were actively cutting away at some of the vegetation using bronze and iron tools.
They immediately stopped when they saw the two floating machines break the treeline, following the gatherers. The home of these tiny creatures was an assembly of mud huts with straw roofs. It seemed they were on the verge of inventing thatch judging by a pile of messy yealm that had yet to be properly dried and was very crooked, with many pieces of straw sticking out in every direction.
"They possess bronze and iron tools but only using mud huts?" Luna whispered to her sister.
"That iron is not properly made yet," Celestia whispered back. "It seems to be getting damaged faster than the bronze tools. I imagine they only took a shine to them because they're sparkly," Celestia said humorously.
"This is no time for puns!"
Ponies were fathering fluffy white substances from an artificial wall made of wood covered in vines. Whatever it was, it was being beaten and placed into other baskets to be taken elsewhere. The harvesters dropped their new harvest and knocked on the largest hut in the village. Several more of the equines came out. Some had a much smaller nub growing on their foreheads, while others had fleshy outgrowths on the side of their backs. What they all had in common was their age. Celestia could see wrinkles present through their fur somehow. Both she and Luna remained silent.
A blue one with a yellow-gray mane a stub on their forehead stepped forward after the initial shock and looked at both Celestia and her sister. They walked around the silent machines until it paused at Luna's side, its eyes locked onto a feature of her chassis. It trembled and called the others over. They all acted similarly: Panic on approach of the floating entities followed by various forms of shock, awe, amazement, joy, horror, and whatever else emotions they kept bringing up to a confused pair of robot sisters. The nub-headed one stepped forward and started speaking loudly to its tribe.
"Have you noticed something about this small village and these tiny creatures?" Celestia asked.
"Yes. They seem to have paraphernalia depicting a joint sun and moon scattered around the area. I saw some carved into the tree trunks when we were coming here," Luna explained as she looked around. "An interesting development."
"Oh," Celestia said with disappointment. "I wanted to point all of that out," she pouted.
"Did you even notice the giant statue these huts were centered around?" Luna spat at her sister.
"N-no."
"Then turn around," Luna explained. "It's actually quite charming. I'm sure Dissonance would have liked that," she said with a trembling voice and body.
There was a giant statue carved of some sort of white wood. Whether it was natural or these creatures found a way to bleach it was unknown. Regardless, it depicted two similar creatures intertwining and ending with their backs turned to each other. Their bodies were far more elongated compared to the ones who carved them. The base of the statue depicted a flowing cloth of sort that engulfed their lower torsos, leaving only their top halves revealed. Their forelegs were outstretched at two different elevations and their heads were pushed backwards so as to make their muzzles point almost ninety degrees into the air. They both had very long protuberances on their foreheads and wings on their backs, somehow. These wings joined together behind them, leaving the ones facing the observer pointed downwards. The wings 'held' the joint sun and moon symbol Luna had been speaking of. In-between the necks of the figures, however, was a giant, polished circle messily painted red. Some of it had spilled onto the rest of the statue. Whether it was intentional or not, the sisters didn't know, but judging from the technology level of the two, they were certain it wasn't.
The older equine approached the two and bowed to them. An action that was quickly followed by the others. When it rose again, it spoke something to the sisters, but, as it waited, its smug grin gradually dissolved. It kept trying to ask something of the sisters and began to panic when Luna responded with a tilted head. The crowd started to grow more and more aggressive and started approaching the older equine. He fell to his rear and slowly backed away into the floating legs of the two who were quick to assess the situation and move in front of him, shocking the others who were quick to back away.
The equine started crying whilst on the floor, likely saying something of the sisters, but they couldn't understand. Then, one of the equines had an idea. They reluctantly approached the two, said something to them, and frowned pensively when they didn't respond. The female -judged by its stature and vocal tones- approached one of the huts next to the largest and pointed to it, producing a single word. She repeated the word multiple times until the sisters caught on and, with some difficulty, repeated the word. The equines looked at each other, confused.
"What happened?" Twilight asked.
"Well, as it turns out, and as I'm sure you guessed already, they thought we were their gods of the sun and moon come to the world in physical form," Luna explained.
"Aaaaaand because they had never seen anything like us but we still had vague, equine features, that stuck," Celestia added. "The problem was, we weren't, and we couldn't speak their language."
"So, when that elder tried to speak to you and you didn't respond, the others took it as their gods shunning him," Twilight realized.
"Yes, and it's only with the intervention of that mare that the tribe understood that we actually didn't understand their language," Celestia explained. "In fact, several of them believed different things about why, but most of them came under the consensus that, because we were gods, that we didn't speak conventional 'mortal' languages."
"Yes," Luna chuckled. "We spoke our own language and only understood the intentions of the mortals," she laughed.
"I mean...you do," Twilight chuckled nervously.
The two looked at her together. The pony shrank, interpreting it as a glare, but the two exchanged looks again and shrugged.
"I suppose you're right, Twilight Sparkle," Luna conceded. "But it is because we are machines with observational skills and preinstalled programs allowing it, not because we are gods."
The lavender alicorn maintained her sheepish smile. "Still, you have to agree that it is easy to see it that way for them," Twilight stammered.
"Be that as it may, we still had to learn about them and their customs," Luna said.
"We figured from everything that we observed and learned from these ponies that our world truly was gone," Celestia lamented. "We thought some remnants would be around, but..."
"But a few million years is a long time," Luna finished.
"Still, because we are robots, we learned everything they were teaching us far quicker than any of them could have expected from a normal pony."
"They thought it was because we had come to their world to learn of their ways and bless them with a bounty or blessings or somesuch," Luna waved away.
"But that one mare that helped us was called Samsut Sp-" Celestia purposely waited before finishing that word. Twilight's eyes grew wider at the suspense being created by her former mentor. "-ooler!" she blurted out. The white machine laughed heartily. "Thought I was gonna say 'Sparkle' didn't ya!" she laughed.
"Sister, please," Luna pleaded. "It's not the time for games," she said.
Twilight felt a heavy change in the atmosphere, one that got stuck in her throat and weighed on her chest for some unknown reason.
It was night, and the ponies were sound asleep in their huts, somehow relieved that their gods were now present and didn't need to sleep. They would watch over them, and nothing would dare to mess with a physical god, after all. The sisters stared at the somewhat intricately carved statue, taking in its features and noting all the mistakes and what could have been done better.
"The wings are uneven," Luna said.
"The flowing patterns at the base are good, but too random. The sizes don't make sense at places."
"Hooves were carved. They're just blocks of wood left over."
"Needs varnish or another substance to help conserve it."
They returned to silence and watched as the moonlight broke through the artificial opening the equines had made through the treeline just behind the statue.
"What now," Celestia muttered. "Everyone is gone."
"Y-yes..." Luna trembled.
"No more of the brash tone of Rahllup," Celestia added.
"No more of Biddydee and her needing to hold that fire-face back...or her obsession with the fauna."
"She didn't even get to see any of the animal life we had," Celestia lamented.
The two continued staring at the statue, as though they wished it would send them back in time. They had just started their adventure. They were going to meet others. How would they have been like.
"No more of Galah's systems overloading and crashing through walls and vehicles," Luna laughed. Each simulated sound weighed heavily on her systems.
"We won't see him fighting Rahllup constantly and her arms just falling off in the confrontation," Celestia added.
"Nor Dissonance and their flamboyant behavior and voice of reason unless it's to mock someone or look for an excuse to not work and just observe."
Their power reserves were still flickering from one hundred to one hundred and one percent. Despite everything that happened and everything they had done today, their power was not going down, and the two could feel it wasn't a glitch in their systems or a display bug.
Luna 'gasped' and dropped her head into her hands while shaking left and right. "The stowaway!" she whisper-yelled. Celestia's optics flashed bright for a moment. "Without us it'll have been stuck behind! I promised it we would be with it until it felt comfortable to leave on its own. And the infants," Luna lamented. Her voice cracked as though she were on the verge of crying. A first for robots.
"We're all alone now," Celestia added. "Is there any point to us continuing?" she wondered. "We're still machines, she said as she turned to her sister. "We could still--"
Her words remained in the spool when she saw something push against her sister's right arm. Looking down, they could see a tiny infant pushing against Luna's arm. It was a small, mint-colored thing. It had no mane but possessed a tail. In place of its mane was a long strand of burns and claw marks. Likely the infant was attacked and the equines cauterized the wound. Despite the tremendous pain it was likely in, it was still here to greet the two machines late at night.
Celestia lowered herself and picked it up in both arms. It was a tiny thing. So fragile. The whole of these creatures were. They were just barely beginning civilization, but they were persisting and showed no signs of stopping. The wounds would never heal, but perhaps they could help guide these creatures and aid them in improving their lives. Eventually they would get answers to what happened and have closure, but until then, these beings would depend on these two they had taken a liking for.
"Perhaps all is not lost after all, sister," Celestia realized meekly. "Perhaps there is a world to explore yet, in honor of our friends."
Twilight remained silent as the two princesses stared at the floor in silence and pain. They gradually enveloped themselves in magic, returning to the forms Twilight was used to.
Celestia gave Twilight a weak smile. "Well, that was the whole story about what happened," she said.
"A robot looked at a building and then became sapient and traveled the world until her sister and her fell asleep and awoke as gods," Luna teased to lighten the mood.
"That's too oversimplified, Luna," Celestia complained.
"I have some questions left," Twilight said.
"Then ask them, former student," Luna said. "It will help us recover.
Twilight cleared her throat. "You acquired these bodies...how?"
"Magic, Twilight," Celestia said. "Or, more importantly, decades of studying it alongside the ponies and learning how their bodies work. It took forever to form everything properly, but, in essence, our bodies are artificial flesh and blood made by magic in which our 'minds' are transferred." She tapped her head. "Our true bodies are kept in our minds, if that makes sense."
"It doesn't really," Twilight sighed.
"Well, that's fine, I suppose. The spells were only made for us anyways," Celestia said with a shrug.
"And we learned that what flowed through us was 'magic' after my sister and I accidentally caused an entire loom to rise into the air and compress onto itself," Luna added before Twilight could ask. "We learned the basics of controlling them from those with the more developed nubs on their head," Luna said while tapping her horn. "Always had a sensation of the blue within us, which made us realize that the blue and the black had potentially merged, but we still don't know how magic came from that. Decomposition? Long incubation? Their combination mutated the world into what you see before you." She looked to her sister, and a devilish smile grew across her face.
"What are you thinking of, Luna?" Celestia asked worriedly.
"You should have seen my sister when we first developed our mouths and stomachs," she chuckled. Celestia jumped onto her sister, trying to wrestle her into silence and submission. "She ate the village's whole supply of cakes! They were furious!"
"You're so annoying!" Celestia backed off and pouted. "As for our bodies-"
"You took on the forms of those figures from the statue," Twilight interrupted. "You became their alicorns."
Celestia nodded in surprise. "Yes! We became their alicorns of legend: Imbued with the power of their future children. They were ecstatic because they believed that we had finally decided to live as them and so forth with whatever their faith entailed at the time," she said while twirling a hoof. "Those aspects are uncomfortable to think about."
"But, we did make many friends," Luna said. "So many. So much uniqueness over the years." She put a hoof to her chest. "But none will replace the ones we met, and not a day goes by that I don't regret leaving that stowaway behind."
"But princess, it wasn't your fault!" Twilight exclaimed.
Luna raised a hoof to interrupt her. "I know! I know, but pains remain regardless."
Twilight sighed and rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "One thing still perplexes me," Twilight said. "You said that millions of years passed since then, yes?"
Celestia nodded. "Yes. What bothers you?"
"Well, that old maker said that you might have started disconnecting from your...your internal clocks." Her face wrinkled. "I can't believe I just said that," she mumbled. She cleared her throat and righted herself. "Is it possible that it hasn't actually been that long? Maybe being deactivated for so long and reawakening after being doused in magic disconnected you completely?"
The two mares laid down, exhausted and sleepy.
"Highly advanced machines that the world had yet to see," Luna wheezed.
"Filled with knowledge of constructing machinery that could place our ponies instantly next to the barrier that could send them into space travel," Celestia continued.
"And we couldn't even realize that," the two wheezed in unison.
Luna dropped her head into her palms while Celestia just bent backwards at an unnatural angle.
"Does that mean there could be remains of the old world?" Twilight asked.
"There's more of a chance than there was a few minutes ago!" Celestia yelled angrily. She pounded her chest. "I'm more determined than ever, now!" She looked to her former student with a bright smile. "Let us leave this place and return to Canterlot. I believe a large supply of stress pancakes is in order," the sun princess declared.
"I'll second that motion," Luna added eagerly. "I want a ton of blueberry syrup on mine."
"I have to say, walking was one of the most difficult things to learn," Celestia blurted out.
"Really?" Twilight wondered aloud. "I would have thought there were...ahem, other functions that would have been more difficult."
As the three emerged from the cave, they took in the fresh air and looked at the setting sun. The princesses had made an automatic spell to take care of the orbits of the celestial bodies while they were away, just in-case. Now the sky was a deep orange. They flew away, regaling Twilight with the tales of what had happened and why they chose to make Canterlot so close to where they had awoken. What they weren't aware of was a figure that was watching them from behind. Its limb was resting against the mountain wall, just around a corner before the cave. It snorted harder and harder as it watched the ponies fly away until it crushed the stone with one movement followed by a garbled screech.
"What happened?" Rahllup shouted nervously. Her systems were haywire, but she was gradually rebooting and restarting every single one of them. Rubble rolled off her body when she raised herself up. "Where is everyone?"
Looking around, the giant realized that she had been launched quite a ways away from the dome. It was hard to even see said building, or anything of it that was still intact. It looked like something had taken a bite out of it and the rest of the area. The loose bit of damaged roof dangling precariously eventually collapsed, throwing up dust. Rahllup couldn't see it well because of the other damaged buildings in the way.
Biddydee and Galah punched their way out of multiple piles of broken glass panes, wiping the shards off of their hulls.
"You're still active!" Biddy cheered as she scooped the flame-faced giant off and hugged her.
Multiple 'tack' noises resonated all throughout the city. They were hardly alone, being accompanied by screaming, sirens, and loud thumping.
"Where are the sisters?" Galah asked. He started looking around in a panic. "Where did they go?"
The prototype started digging around into rubble while the two machines of the black surveyed their environment. They could see the circles floating above releasing the same massive amount of blue energy onto the world. Dozens of orange lines were flying just beneath the clouds, their forms insignificant in comparison to whatever owned those blue things.
"Galah...Galah!" Biddydee shouted. "If they were around here they would have removed themselves already," she said as she held the prototype in place. "No. They were sent elsewhere. We'll have to join up with them elsewhere." The machine paused. "The engineer's junkyard would be a good place to go."
"Provided it's still there," Rahllup said bleakly. "Where's the other two, then? I can't see the stowaway or the artist."
The charred machine had only flown a few feet rather than multiple kilometers from the impact site. It was damaged but still mobile, although there was a hitch in its left leg now, not that that was important. It had functioned with far worse. It looked around at the results and watched a gigantic cube-machine walking down one of the streets. It didn't know why it was there. It didn't know what it was doing there. The stowaway had no idea what the goal was, and honestly, it didn't care. The two floating things said they would stay by its side the whole way. The flash chased them away. Itself would have to navigate on its own, but could it? Its systems sparked and squealed as it moved forward down the pile of white rocks and onto the new clearing. The ground was still hot with orange patches of varying size scattered here and there. As it looked around for any traces of the sisters, a flash drowned its optics. The cubic thing had been hit by something and was stumbling backwards, the whole right side of its body burning a bright, phosphorous white. It fired a retaliatory shot down the street, demolishing even more of the city. The smaller buildings erupted like bubbles, coating everything around them in debris and shards.
Partially buried machines glitched as they tried to resume their tasks but couldn't free themselves. The charred machine had already spent a lot of time digging through the remains before coming to its current conclusion. It would look around for the group and get them to aid it in finding the floating things. It continued through the crater, vaulting over more destroyed robots and melted foundations. Oh, this machine was leaking red. A strange oil, that. No yellow squishy things like its family had. Definitely a machine. Now, where had the other two gone?
It banged its head with the base of its fists. If they flew far there would be a trace of that stuff left behind when they floated, but now it was all over the place! Where could they have gone? They wouldn't leave it behind. They promised! Of course! They would find it as long as it kept itself visible. It avoided the street with the giant machine fighting an invisible opponent and tried retracing its steps to the colorful place with the comfortable dark hole filled with the tiny family. The blue one already knew that it would be there, so they would find it down there eventually. Another flash.
A white pillar came from the sky, drilling through the clouds and impacting the city. The land shook like it was splitting apart, and windows shattered, accompanied by more screaming in the air. A plethora of vehicles were flying overhead, fleeing from the strike. One of them was cut apart and spun downwards, bleeding a beautiful, glowing trail of blue light before impacting one of the taller buildings around its thirtieth floor. That was a nice scene, whatever it was, but the stowaway had to find safety. Its optics jittered. This seemed all familiar somehow. It quickly ran through the streets, keeping to its new plan of hiding in the tunnel rather than staying out in the open. It caught sight of several PABs destroyed with their parts strewn about the streets. Observing closely, the stowaway quickly entered a nearby building and hid behind damaged furniture.
Several makers wearing strange, bulky clothing and carrying sticks were slowly walking about, cautiously watching anything around them. They stopped where the PABs were located and placed their equipment down. What were they doing? They seemed to be taking their big bags and building a bunch of stuff with them. Oooo, big shiny poles of metal with tinier poles on them. The stowaway shook its head. Black energy containers were being attached to everything. They all crouched and looked around nervously. The buildings shook again after another tremor, and one collapsed in on itself. Some of the makers laughed, but it didn't last. Several CAS had emerged from the corner of the street and froze in place after noticing the makers.
Explosive things and flashes went towards the armored robots who bolted to the place the makers stood. A 'position', was it? The machines ignored what was thrown at them and tackled the makers who started to panic. Since when were makers made of two halves? Oh, their heads come off. That was neat! Could they be put back on? Lots of red oil though. Dirty messy, but good for hiding during sunset. The colorful place was still a trek from where the stowaway was, so it was time for the stowaway to use their skills. It slid out of a broken window and merged into the fight. Moving with the actors, rather than against them. Not processing anything but directions. It laid back-to-back with a maker and rolled and twisted with them.
Low on energy, the machine grabbed the maker's wrist then moved on, rendering them pale and causing them to collapse. It dove between one of the CAS' legs, moved back with one of the makers while staying hidden against their back, and repeated these acts of 'merging' with them until it was free to run through a small patch of burning plant life. The stowaway had gotten through, but it seemed that the makers had lost. Well, better luck next time, it supposed. A bit of fixing and they'd be ready for another round, but that would have to wait.
The stowaway was distracted by multiple bright flashes coming from above. They were bright enough to pierce through the clouds, and they seemed to be coming from one of the blue circles which fizzled in its brightness during the event. Very bright and pretty, but not the floating things. If it kept on its path, the charred machine would reach that comfortable place underground again. Many more buildings had collapsed in this section of the city, and a garden had caught fire. Its dying cries rose to he sky in thick plumes of black smoke as though it were calling for help, but none would come. The charred machine slowed down briefly when it spotted several flying vehicles spread along the road and building floors in pieces, blue wisps wafting off of the remains. Several makers were lying on the floor. Why were they doing that? Some seemed to have overextended their torque and twisted around. That was a shame, but it wasn't something that couldn't be replaced, perhaps. Others had lost their parts. The metal didn't seem too mangled, so at least those could be reattached. The ones with funny spotted clothing were there too, and so were several tracked vehicles. The heads were dented in, making the barrels point upwards. Hm. What were they for?
Images of the field of white mushrooms flashed before the optics of the observer, startling it briefly. It erased the occurrence from its event log and carried on. All it needed was to focus on the tunnel, then wait. The two would either be there or find it, then they could explore to their hearts' content. The machine wanted to bring a bunch of things back to its family at home. The ones with the squishy yellow insides and not the gross, reddish oil. Much of the city was the same, but there were groups of the blue things running about through the streets while others who were spotted and striped and holding big sticks were corralling the rest. Another white flash followed by a tremor. Another beam from the blue circles. The stowaway saw the event occur multiple times in quick succession in the far distance where the bad blue was. Unimportant.
The stowaway slipped past the group using some of the tracked vehicles nearby and continued on. There was more of the same including blue spotted makers set up along the way either in the streets or in buildings. Several more of their vehicles with long noses were nearby. They'd sneeze out sparkling orbs that would break apart in the air then start flying around the buildings. Assisting CAS and PABs had almost spotted the stowaway multiple times, but were always distracted by some plan of the charred machine. Everything being fragile was enough to cause minor bouts of assisted destruction that allowed them to slip by unseen.
Finally, itself was in the colorful district from before. This area hadn't been affected yet, but it had been abandoned. Doors were left swinging open and lights flickered through the windows. The toy store was still in the same rough shape left by the giant ones. No matter. Was it over this hill or that one? Maybe this one? Ah! There it is, the path with a steep incline with no green things. Being back in this darkness was nice.
The charred machine continued downwards, deeper and deeper beyond where it had gone initially, ignoring the sounds of a screaming world behind it. This spot! It would be perfect. There were a bunch of the funny bubbles and blue mist, so the floating things would be able to find their way to itself. It sat down, producing a wet splotch. It leaned against a weak wall of very old bricks that had been gnawed through by roots and water. The machine cozied itself up, eagerly awaiting the return of the floating things. They'd arrive soon.
Tremors rocked the tunnel, throwing down loose dirt and popping several of the bubbles.
Soon they'd be back and the three would go exploring this new place.
Several of the insects started burrowing out of the walls as the hours flew by and crawled all over the charred machine who welcomed them with open arms.
They'll arrive any moment now. They're the first like itself that it met, and they didn't attack it nor its family. They protected itself from those giants and even tamed them.
The tremors became closer and closer, and the charred machine could hear some of the tunnels collapsing little by little.
Soon, they'll be here.
The insects scampered about in a panic, revealing a plethora of them hiding in the walls as a humongous shock wave vibrated the whole of the land, causing the walls to cave in, the bubbles to burst, coating the robot in the blue fluids with the strange creatures within them.
Soon, they'll emerge. The shaking wasn't important.
A bright, pink light came from deep at the end of the tunnel, taking a great amount of rubble with it. It had stopped just a few feet from where the charred machine was sitting patiently. Only a bit of it oozed through the cracks of the now collapsed entrance of the tunnel, mixing with the blue mist just a few inches above the floor.
Soon they'll dig through the dirt
The charred machine looked down, realizing the insect it thought it was holding had multiplied and turned into husks. It probably molted multiple times, scared of the continuous tremors. That was okay. The stowaway wiped off the husks and pulled off some of the plants that had fallen onto it. They were pretty tenacious, though. They had already extended their roots into the walls and ground around.
Soon they'll be here.
One of the plants was particularly stubborn, so the stowaway pulled on it really hard. So many plants falling on them a lot in such a short time, but it seemed like the shaking had ended. The stubborn plant had very long, hairy roots, and took the wall behind the stowaway with it. A large amount of green ooze emerged from the new hole like a volcanic plug erupting. The substance splattered all over the area and engulfed the charred machine.
They'll be here and-and-and cle-cl-ncl They'll be here and clean this-s-s-ss
Suddenly, the ooze had already hardened, but more flowed out. So, the stowaway broke them off of itself and continued to wait, staring at the collapsed wall from which the pink air flowed in. The ooze seeped into the holes of the machine's body, chewing away at the new metal that the engineer had installed.
Th-th-they'll be h-be here soon.
So many plants all over the place, but at least the bugs were still here. The machine really wanted to see its family again. It'd rather be with the gargantuan beasts than these tiny things.
They'll be-be-be here soon.
They'll be here soon.
Th-thh-he-yh-th ll be here soonnnnnoon.
Theeeeeey'll...be here...soon...
The friendsssss will be...here soon...
They...promised...
Biddy and Rahllup watched in shock as Galah tore through the caretakers, using some as shields for protection and bludgeoning others with their own comrades. He had even managed to get their vehicle to explode by punching through its side and damaging the engine. Angry plumes of black energy crackled from its ruined husk as the caretakers fled from the scene. He had even taken out several nearby CAS and PABs using the weaponry he stole from the caretakers. The prototype crumbled the one he held in his hand then threw it aside.
"And that's that," he said casually while legging over a few broken machines.
The giants stared at him in silence. "So ah was right! Y'are a military robot!" Rahllup exclaimed accusingly.
Galah shrugged. "I suppose I am."
He looked back to the path that they had left behind, to the makers strewn about the ground alongside their faithful machine companions. How he started to panic and Rahllup pulled him away. 'They're gone, Galah. You cannot help them' Biddy had shouted while Rahllup pulled him away.
"Next time, you let us help," Rahllup chastised.
The prototype was pulled out of its thoughts, unable to conclude them. "We'll see," he said. Another tremor rocked the land. "We need to get out of here. We need to either find a location underground or a place far away from here." He looked up at the circles and growled. "Whatever those things are, they seem to be firing sparingly. I'm assuming they're targeting those big squares from the black," he said.
"Uh, speakin' of big squares," Rahllup stuttered.
The group turned to see that one of the deployed cubic machines was staring right at them several dozens of meters away. An angry storm of black was coming from its body when a red light came from it and coated the three machines.
"Time to run!" Biddy shouted.
The three quickly followed her advice and bolted around a corner into an alleyway, bumping into fleeing makers that were caught in the blast of whatever that thing produced. The three machines looked back to see if there was anyone left they could pull to safety, but all that remained was a charred, blackened landscape, as though all things organics were incinerated away.
Perturbed, the three watched as something angular and silvery-blue invaded their sights. Its full form was hidden by the buildings, so only a tall sliver of it could be seen. From its side glowed a white light that grew in intensity until it shot off the object's body and impacted the cubic monstrosity from the black. It was met in kind by a shot that tore off the top of its body and sent it careening into the skyscrapers nearby.
"Go go go!" Galah ordered.
The group continued rushing about, doing their best to avoid conflict. Galah's inherent knowledge of military practices was helpful, but it didn't elucidate why he knew all of that information. His only response was a shrug.
"A little help?" someone cried out.The voice came from above, where a certain flamboyant actor was dangling. "I was trying to join up with you but, when I wanted to make a dramatic entrance, I got snagged on this bit of armored stone. I'm dangling precariously above the ground by my legs and would appreciate any assistance."
Without taking her eyes off of him, Rahllup moved to the piece of wall that had broken off the main building and collapsed into its neighbor, and bashed her elbow into it. The wall crumbled and the metal skeleton dropped Dissonance. They were falling down screaming while Rahllup just watched with belated amusement. Said amusement was ruined by Biddy and Galah both catching the actor in the air after a well-timed jump.
"Coulda let it fall, ya know," Rahllup complained.
"I adore being adored by my audience," Dissonance stated sarcastically whilst sliding off the joined arms of the two saviors. "At least these two still value me." The comment was left without a rebuttal as the two weren't interested in arguing. "So, I noticed that the two sisters and that stowaway aren't here," they noticed. Rahllup and Biddydee explained the situation, leaving the actor with a grim expression on their 'teeth'. "I don't like that," they said.
"So now we're just trying to survive and find where they've likely gone," Biddydee explained.
"Figured the black thing would be with them since it was really attached to them for no logical reason," Rahllup complained.
"The engineer would be some time away," Galah said. "We'll need to be really careful on our way. We don't know if the CAS think we're enemies yet or not." He looked to the two giants and readjusted his arm. "Those two should be able to handle any PABs, though." An eye flickered. "How did you survive, anyways? Where were you?"
Dissonance moved their arm horizontally through the air. "I was flown out into a nearby building with its supports looking like melted cheese." They tapped their scarf. "Thanks to this, I was mostly cushioned against the impacts, but I still needed to reboot. Then I saw you and followed you."
"That's...a very fast recap."
"No time for tales, sadly," Dissonance regretted. They looked to the side and flinched when they saw flying vehicles slow down and drop caretakers from its sides behind a building along with large, wrapped up boxes from its rear. "Hey, haven't you been wondering why those of the black are here and why they attacked you?"
Rahllup grabbed the actor by the arm and started running, leaving them to fly in the air like a kite. "Wonder later, survive now. That's what Pa always said!"
The most direct paths to the engineer had been cut off from rubble, leaving the group to choose a random direction to reach their destination. They went left. Another tremor nearly threw them down, but they continued on, ignoring the event as best they could.
"Crap!" Galah exclaimed.
"Newly registered machines of the black present. Timing, suspicious. Apprehend," the robot said.
The group had been cornered by several CAS that slid on the ground from around the corner.
"We can't fight them," Rahllup whispered angrily. "I almost got scrapped."
"M-maybe something convenient will occur and let us escape unharmed?" Dissonance said in a panic. They looked around, hoping, then dropped their arms in disappointment. "Ugh. Of course not. Had to say it. Fine!"
" 'Fine'?" Rahllup repeated.
The artist moved towards the incoming CAS and started dancing in place, using their scarf as an added tool of the craft and to create flowing movements. The machines were unimpressed or simply didn't have the programming to register the act until Dissonance whipped their scarf at them and, with a loud whip crack, reproduced facsimiles of all four of them that ran off to the left. the CAS quickly chased after them.
"Ha ha, idiots," Dissonance mocked.
They wrapped the scarf back around their head and returned to their companions with a 'smile' on their teeth.
"What was that?" Galah asked with a raised finger.
The artist stood proudly before the three machines. "Part of the tricks I can do with the blue energy," Dissonance explained.
"Amazing!"
Rahllup slapped the two behind their heads. "Yeah yeah, was sparkly, now let's get going!"
Her yelling didn't help that a blue flying craft going towards the one that they had seen drop off the caretakers earlier flew overhead then stopped to hover around them while others continued their way.
"Time to get running," Biddydee whispered. "No allies, only enemies!"
They were chased by rockets burrowing themselves into the ground before detonating and throwing the ground everywhere in a wide arc. It continued like that until Galah snatched a piece of metal twisted off a destroyed vehicle that crashed in the alleyway and passed it to Biddydee who lobbed it at the aggressor. The metal lodged itself in the underside, stalling it just long enough for the group to get away, just in-time to reach another battle zone where those of the blue were fighting against those of the black. Those of the black had a fortified position whilst the blue had to hide behind damaged and overturned vehicles, and debris. The CAS were trying to push forward but were mostly unsuccessful thanks to the heavier equipment bearing down on them.
"Unit of the gray!" one of the machines shouted. "Unit of the gray! Forbidden energy source. Illegal model!"
The makers on both sides stopped shooting and looked to the source of the CAS' ire. Those of the black realized that they were pointing to one of the machines in the small group when one of them shouted.
"Protect the unit of the gray! It's our future that they stole from us!" they fired more intensely onto the position of the blue. "Spare no weaponry! We need to recover it and bring it back home!"
Rahllup's systems didn't have time to read and register the events unfolding before her. Only a still image remained frozen in her optics: Biddydee being accosted by the CAS and flashes of light and explosions filled the area behind them.
"Biddy!" the flame-faced giant shouted.
Sirens were blaring and the only visible light was a terrified red. Makers and machines were bolting left and right in the facility as the walls crumbled around them.
"I need to fix this, or else we're all doomed," a maker shouted. She worked frantically on a machine, watching the many displays pull up warning sign after warning sign. Her colleagues next to her were hard at work trying to rectify the problems as well. "We were so close. It was going to be ready in a month!" she growled under her breath.
Another tremor caused piping in the walls above her and her colleagues to burst, releasing the fluid contents. While the others fled, the female remained and rushed towards the panel directly connected to the containment of the pink energy. The cylindrical tower meant to house the future equipment to drain the pink energy's production was crumbling all around, but another thing had caught the female's eye, causing her to freeze in place.
"The...blue energy seeped into the chamber?" She started tapping furiously on the console. "I should be able to vent it from here then get the drones to seal the cracks and neutralize the p--" A tremor shook through the facility, more violent than the rest. "Those idiots! They're shooting too close to the generator! Are they trying to--"
Rahllup was dragging Biddydee behind her while Galah kept a CAS head clenched in his fist. Dissonance, on the other hand, was having trouble staying active.
"Alright, let's rest here a moment on this dirt pile and check our damages," Galah ordered.
Rahllup carefully lowered Biddydee against the collapsed wall partially buried in the dirt and debris and readjusted her position.
"It's okay,' the flame-faced giant said. "I'll bring you to that engineer or back to Pa, 'n you'll be fixed right up. No need to worry," she said.
Biddy's voice came out as noise before turning into a weak sound. "I figured, but I don't know if you'll even be able to get me back home, let alone us." She placed a hand on Rahllup's multi-colored arm. "I can rest easy, at least." She chuckled. "Who knew that everyone was obsessed with me and those of the black would finally care about us just because I'm of the gray!"
"Figures that something stupid would get them to care about u-" Rahllup caught herself. "Well, to care about you, really." She knelt down. "It's okay now. Deactivate and I'll carry you home when all of this blows over."
Biddy obliged and did just that. She hadn't deactivated in decades, but Rahllup just couldn't bring herself to watch her friend bleed out of their energy. Biddydee likely knew of the dangerous damage she had received from the exchange and them escaping just narrowly thanks to the reinforcements of the black. Ironic, Rahllup thought.
"I think...I'll deactivate too," Dissonance said as they slumped to the ground into a heap. "My energy is running very low. I was never made for...all of this." The actor pulled their scarf over their head and rolled it into a ball to rest their head. "I'm much lighter so I should be easier to carry." They looked up at Rahllup and Galah looking down at them. "I can't wait...to share everything we've seen here...at home. I'll be the greatest actor...they've ever seen. And with the best fashion sense!" they laughed.
The laughter gradually died down then went silent. Dissonance had run out of power. A better situation than Biddybee, perhaps. Rahllup dropped down with a loud and sudden thump, staring at the bright lights coming from the devastated city. Galah remained standing, surveying the landscape.
"We can't go by the sea. The multi-port is either claimed or ruined. We can't go by land elsewhere." Galah hummed. "I'm stuck."
"Then wait. That's all we can do," Rahllup sighed. "Ya know, ah didn't think ya would be capable of anything except bein' distracted and walking through walls."
"I can do much more than that. Seems my underlying software remains dormant while nothing like this is occurring." He scoffed. "I'd spit if I had the glands. Annoying." Galah looked at his limbs and the rest of himself. "I wonder if they upgraded the CAS based on tests with me." He shook his head. "A deus ex machina that went nowhere. Pfff. What kind of story telling is that?"
A tall, cylindrical tower in the distance that rose as high as the skypiercers began to crack when another beam hit the ground near it. Pink lightning erupted from it and snaked through the clouds almost instantly, taking on the appearance of frozen lightning or roots.
"Ya know," Rahllup started as she looked at the scenery. "Ah'm gonna survive all of this, 'n then ah'll get back to mah family's farm. Maybe Pa'll be able ta fix ya too," she said.
"Not if I make it first," Galah challenged.
The tower burst apart, its pieces floating in the air, attached to each other by thin, waving strands of pink energy. The land shook more violently, and the buildings around the tower disintegrated into multiple crystalline shards showering down on all below.
"Ya know, that kinda looks like cotton candy," Galah said pensively. "I bet Luna would love to touch that."
A bright pink light started mixing in with the surroundings and rapidly expanded outwards.
Rahllup's flames dimmed to almost nonexistence, then she slowly turned her head and looked up at the prototype. "Your last words are about the clouds looking like cotton candy?" She shook her head in disapproval. "You stupid fu-"
"Here, princesses," Twilight announced impatiently.
She had brought in a small cart to their throne room, asking for a simultaneous audience with the both of them. Still unused to her position as princess, she nervously gestured the guards to leave, something the sisters allowed for some reason.
"What is so urgent that you wanted to speak with both of us at the same time?" Luna asked. She yawned heavily and wiped her eye with a hoof. "I am meant to be sleeping at this hour, Twilight Sparkle," she said.
"I am also curious as to why you had our guards leave," Celestia said. "Is it because of that little cart you brought us?" She leaned forward in her throne and rubbed her chin. "I imagine it has something to do with that cart you brought in. Awful tall thing you're hiding behind that dark cloth."
They stepped down from their thrones, taking the few steps from the podium to join up with Twilight on the black marble floor. The mare was bouncing up and down happily.
"She reminds me of the pink one," Luna whispered to her sister.
"So, I asked Rarity if she could help me make this carving, she's the fashionista at our town of Ponyville, and she said no, but--"
Celestia put a hoof on Twilight's mouth. "Don't do that thing where a pony has too many details in the story and then it drags on and on, my faithful student. Focus." She gave Twilight a downwards glance, implying for her to be more serious.
Twilight obliged. "Sorry. So, long story very, very short Rarity helped me find somepony skilled in wood sculpting to make this gift for you. A legend in it, actually. Rainbow Dash brought it back to me once it was finished, and then I enchanted it." She covered the dark-blue drape in her magic. "See, I realized that no pony ever really celebrated your actual birthdays, so I went ahead and did this!" she shouted when she tugged the cloth off.
Celestia and Luna were taken aback. It felt like the air had just left their lungs. For a moment they forgot they were in organic bodies and didn't breathe. They were lookingg at a painted sculpting of the skypiercer Luna had seen so long ago. An image that she only ever saw through her data storage when she reminisced.
The lavender alicorn got up on her hind legs and pointed to a curved, semi-transparent block behind the moving sculpture. "See the dots here?" Twilight announced. "They're in a black resin block. Using a magic spell for simple movement in inanimate objects, you can make it look like the night sky!" she exclaimed cheerfully. She reached underneath the tray and grabbed a large amount of cotton painted night blue. "You can put this on top of it too. It also has little dots on it so you could place it somewhere high and it'll look like a cloudy night sky."
Twilight looked at the princesses with a giant, hopeful smile as she tapped the cotton on the tray, but the smile gradually faded into a saddened furrow as the melancholic stares of the princesses slowly consumed her.
"I-is something wrong?" Twilight asked. She started to sputter her words. "I-I-I thought that-that-that if I made something a-a-about the past, that y-you might like-Did I do something wrong? Did you not want to see it? I can take it back home with me to Ponyville s--"
She was caught off by the two princesses strangling her in a deep, very tight embrace. Twilight was startled at first but gradually calmed down.
"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, for bringing a piece of our old world to the new," Celestia weeped.
"What started with the tower ends with the tower," Luna chuckled between her tears. "Dissonance would have found that a fitting phrase for one of their pieces."
