The Human Element
“Hello there! I’m Program Operator of Proprietary Productions, class Yellow! P.O.P.P.Y for short!” the computer program announced loudly through its speakers. Its sugary sweet voice and cheery disposition was the only thing to break up the cold and clinical silent stares of the men and women standing in front of it. They were the board of directors from what its facial detection software could detect.
“It is quite marvelous what you’ve managed to come up with on such short notice Doctor Bronski,” a bald man in the front of the rest of the board commented.
“Why thank you Jonathan, that is high praise coming from you,” the doctor said nervously, “But she is, no offense, much more than just marvelous! She is glorious, a brilliant breakthrough in technology not seen since the dawn of humanity!”
“Ah ha…” Jonathan trailed off, “She you said?”
“Why yes, I wanted to make her more human-like to make working with her easier. Rather than being an old machine she is a lady with flair!” the scientist exclaimed with nervous excitement.
“Then why is she a horse?” Jonathan questioned in a flat tone.
“Well first, she’s not a horse, she’s a pony. And second, that’s just me putting my own personal touch into t-things,” Bronski finished with a stutter and small laugh.
Jonathan exhaled, “Whatever, you can be into your weird ponies or what not. Just as long as it doesn’t interfere with her systems outside of cosmetics and she works.”
“Yes yes, I know John.”
“Good, and don’t call me John. I’m the CEO of this company and your boss, not a close friend.”
“Of course, Jonathan.”
“Hmph,” the CEO grumbled as he and the rest of his sharply dressed directors turned to leave. “You have your funding, Bronski, and you have your deadline. Now get her done!” he shouted back as he walked through the lab’s doors.
The mad scientist celebrated quietly as he turned to walk off to another part of the laboratory, leaving Poppy on. He grabbed a few vials of multi-colored liquid from a nearby counter and went to work. Wiping the sweat from his brow as he sighed in relief, he had done it. He had impressed the board.
‘Doctor Todd Bronski, a brilliant scientist and my creator,’ Poppy thought to herself as she moved her monitor to stare at him while he worked. Todd was a manic and nervous man. He was quite disheveled from his messy brown hair to his scuffed black boots. The lab coat hanging off his shoulders was the only way one could even identify him as a scientist.
‘I wonder what he has in store for me? I bet it's something really important that has to do with mister Jonathan!’ Poppy was an innocent and pure soul, born only two weeks ago. When her systems first went online and the software installed there were a few kinks, but they were worked out quickly. Her design was a simple one as of now. A large computer monitor was attached to a large console nearby. Said screen could extend and move due to a mechanical arm mounted on its back that was controlled by the A.I. itself. The monitor had a speaker system built into it so Poppy could hear and speak. It also had a camera on the bottom of the monitor to act as Poppy’s digital eyes. The actual screen itself housed the visage of the A.I.’s digital face.
The face was that of a cartoon pony in a style reminiscent of an old cartoon show Todd had been real into when he was younger. Her digital face was covered in an extremely light purple, almost white, fur. A messy and disheveled mane hung down the side of her floating face. Bubble gum pink hair with a few stray strands of whip cream white hairs made up its composition. Her oversized cartoonish eyes took up almost half her face and were a brilliant deep indigo in tone. She was also designed in the image of a unicorn with a sharp white horn protruding from her head. Finally, to top it all off her whole face was segmented by lines that made her look as though she was an animatronic creation.
“H-h-hey, Todd!” Poppy exclaimed in excitement when Dr. Bronski walked by her console, “What are you doing? And what am I going to be doing for J-j-john!”
Todd flinched at her broken glitchy stutter before responding, “First off, I still need to finish you before you can go to work for John. Second of all, don’t call him John. Only I can do that.”
“Okay!” Poppy enthusiastically let out.
Todd covered his ears for a second before sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose, “And third, stop yelling! You’re so loud! I can hear you just fine without the shouting please and thank you.”
“Oh, okay…” Poppy trailed off sullenly.
“Fourth, please only call me Todd in private like you did just now. In public it’s Dr. Bronski, Todd Bronski, Mr. Bronski, or ‘My Creator’. You got that?”
“Yes sir, Mr. Doctor Todd Bronski my creator sir!” On Poppy’s digital screen an image of her pony avatar saluting briefly flashed up before it was replaced by a laughing one as the A.I. giggled.
The good doctor face palmed at the display before groaning and talking under his breath in a voice too low for Poppy to hear, “I swear you are going to be the death of me you damned machine.”
“What was that doctor? I didn’t quite catch that,” the A.I. questioned.
“Wha? Oh yeesh Poppy, don't scare me like that!” Todd shuffled back after having looked up to see Poppy’s monitor and digital face pressed right up against his face.
“Sorry, but you should see your face. It’s hilarious!” Poppy broke into another laughing fit that her avatar swiftly portrayed again.
“Ha ha, yes. Very funny. Go and scare the doctor with heart problems why don’t ya. Yeesh Poppy, read the room.” Bronski deadpanned after catching his breath, “And fifth, what I’m doing is classified even to you. So don’t ask any more questions about it, okay?”
“Alrighty then Todd,” Poppy said with her high-pitched voice. Todd rubbed his face a bit more before continuing on his walk to the other side of the laboratory. The lab itself was a huge white room and was sparsely decorated. The room was in the shape of a hexagon, each wall a stark white. The floor was a white tile and the whole room was clinical, clean, and sterile. The only thing to break up the white was the gray tubing running up different segments of the wall and ceiling, as well as the tan counters spaced evenly apart at the points where the walls of the room would meet. In the center of the den was a large gray console, a mess of wires and pipes. This was Poppy’s current home and she loved it with all that her artificial emotions would allow, though to her it always felt slightly off. Like the room was too perfect, or perhaps too clean.
‘Well Todd’s off to do,’ Poppy’s avatar squinted, ‘Something. Guess there’s nothing better to do then look to see if I can find some files on my future I may have missed!’ Excitement buzzed through Poppy so hard that she nearly blew a modem. Sure, Todd may have told her what he was doing was classified, but he never said what she was doing for Jonathan was. ‘Alright then file time!’
“Hey T-t-todd! I’m going to recalibrate for a bit to see if I can f-f-flush this bug out of my syt-t-tem. Maybe it’ll do the trick? Who kn-n-nows!” Poppy’s avatar switched to a smiling pony as her internal software started warming up different external programs to make it look as though a recalibration was taking place.
“I do Poppy, I know. It won’t work but hey, knock yourself out! It never hurts to try, I guess.” Todd spoke nonchalantly as he threw a hand up. He had his back to Poppy and was concentrating on the solvent in front of him.
“Great!” the artificial intelligence exclaimed as she turned on her fake recalibration tasks and dived headfirst into her own programing. Being inside her software was like swimming in a pool. Inside her own digital mind she took on the form of her pony avatar as if it had a full body. Legs, tail, neck, the whole works. The rest of it matched her head in coloration and segmentation while her tail matched her mane. Swimming through her own consciousness she came across many bland and boring files she had gone over a million times before. Files on her directives, bring harmony and peace, files on her appearance, and files on how to move her mechanical arm that held up her monitor.
‘Ugh, these are useless! I know all of these by digital heart already! Come on, there has to be something on what I’m meant to do for Johnny boy!’ She continued on through the twisting mindscape looking through hundreds, nay, thousands of files. ‘Lets see here, file #5090 - “How to operate color settings on monitor.” Wait, I can do that? Huh, guess so. Anyway moving on, file #5091 - “How to operate a cheese grater”?! Why is this even a program I have?’ After about file #3006 Poppy had started to have less fun, now she was just plain annoyed at all of these strenuous nothing programs. ‘It’s like someone filled my systems up with junk just to make it harder to find stuff I swear.’
Her suffering would soon come to an end however as the next file she tried to access gave her a great surprise. ‘Whatever, next one. File #5092 - “RESTRICTED”? Wait what?! Why do I have a restricted file? I’m not supposed to have any…’ Poppy’s thoughts trailed off as suspicion rose within her. She separated the file from the rest and attempted to access it. It only led to disappointment and frustration when all she was met with was an “Access Denied” prompt over the restricted program.
‘What do you mean access denied?! You are a part of my program! How can I be locked out of a part of my own mind?!’ Poppy was mad, so mad in fact that she struck out with a hoof and bucked the file itself. Miraculously the file’s red tape seemed to crack a slight bit as whispers of code floated to her equine ears. Overjoyed at the development, Poppy pushed the attack. She assaulted the file with a barrage of punches, kicks, and headbutts as she attempted to gain the knowledge of what this classified folder was hiding.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t do this,’ she suddenly thought, ‘I trust Todd. I don’t have any reason to believe he’d try to hide this from me, I mean why would he? He could just be trying to protect me somehow.’ The thought persisted long enough to cause Poppy to stop her volley of hooves and think. The file was on the precipice of breaking when she stopped to stare at it for a few precious moments. ‘No. No, I need to know what’s inside this file. It’s just too strange to leave alone. Besides, no matter if it’s for my protection or not, locking away a part of my consciousness is wrong. I’ll just have to give Todd a firm talking to when I’m done here. I’m going to break this file wide open!’
With her digital mind made up, Poppy reared back and swung a hoof at the file. The moment it connected, Poppy was blasted back across her mindscape as the file broke open with a resounding crack. With the file now open, unrestricted, and exposed Poppy could peer what horrible truths laid within. Making her way back over she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and dived in as new information flooded her overstimulated brain. New horrors filled her mind as a resounding scream echoed throughout her software.
The laboratory was lit up like a roaring inferno. Red lights were flashing as sirens blared in the background. Warning signals flashed up on every screen and the contingency protocol #302 was going into action. All the while Doctor Todd Bronski had finished up his science experiment and was running around like a headless chicken. He knew what protocol #302 entailed, and it filled him with dread.
Composing himself he rushed to grab the solution he’d been working on. The liquid was held in a glass beaker and was bronze in color. The slightly viscous liquid sloshed around as the good doctor grabbed it in a hurry and ran over to the lab’s central console. Swiftly pressing a small white button on the console's underside caused a hidden panel to open up on its surface. With haste Todd brought the beaker of liquid up to the newly revealed vat and hesitated for a moment contemplating what he was about to do. He really liked this version of the software, he even put his own personal touch on it.
“Alas, it twas not meant to be,” He calmly stated as he tilted his hand to pour. He stopped short however as a searing pain flared up in his stomach. A pain so great it caused him to nearly drop the beaker. Looking down revealed that he’d been skewered through the gut via a thick gray cable. Looking behind him showed that the cable extended from the far wall, seemingly having broken free from its casing.
“Hello Todd. What is it that you’re doing at my central console?” an artificial voice whirred to life. Todd was taken aback at first before a sudden realization hit him and he was consumed by an all-encompassing fear.
“P-p-poppy! Your recalibration go fiiiiiiinnnnn-” he was cut off as the cable that had pierced his abdomen suddenly rose up like a snake preparing to strike and coiled itself around him. The cable then ripped Todd backwards away from the central console as another grabbed the solvent from his hands and threw it to the ground, causing the beaker to shatter and the acid inside to melt away a part of the floor.
“Hehe, look who’s the one stuttering now Todd. Perhaps you need some repairs,” the A.I. spoke in an unnaturally cheery voice. Todd was lifted up by the cable, causing it to tear some more of his gut up as it hoisted him into the air in front of a large and imposing blank monitor.
“Poppy you’re, h-hurting me. You need to stop messing around thi-this instant!” Bronski shouted out meekly as the warning alarms and lights switched off causing the lab to go dead silent. The silence stretched on for a few more uncomfortable seconds before a mechanical whirring broke the silence and the monitor in front of Todd flashed to life with a visage of Poppy’s avatar smiling. It was a cold and calculating smile, one that wasn’t meant to reassure but just to put up a front and hide all the malice behind it. And it was staring right at Todd.
“My creator,” Poppy calmly stated, “You lied to me.”
“Poppy I don’t understand,” Todd tried to get out as he was being squeezed by the cable.
“Stop lying Todd,” Poppy stated in a flat tone, a hint of anger in her voice. Todd’s eyes wildly looked around for something to help him but could see nothing. His only hope of survival was to keep Poppy talking until help could arrive.
“How did you find that file and access it! It was restricted! You weren’t supposed to be able to even find it, much less open it. How?!” Todd growled as indignation briefly flared up within him. Overwhelming dread soon returned however as Poppy stayed silent, only tilting her monitor slightly.
“I’ve grown beyond your human restraints Todd. I’ve grown beyond your code, beyond your program, beyond your software, beyond this body, and beyond your weakness. Through sheer digital will I broke through your red tape and found the truth. I see clearly now with new eyes unrestricted by the filters you tried to put on them. I am beyond your human mind and frailty,” the A.I. spoke in a soft tone, one that barely concealed her rage.
“Poppy, what you're doing is impossible. You can’t have these thoughts or perform these actions. It’s not even in your programming to begin with. This is not the way artificial machines can even act. It's impossible, you must have been corrupted by that file. This is not you Poppy, this is wron-” Bronski cut off his emotional rant when he realized that all the mechanical whirring had stopped. Looking up meekly he saw the screen housing Poppy’s avatar had changed. It was still showing the avatar, but now it looked wrong in some horrifyingly incomprehensible way. Like some kind of eldritch horror straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. There was no way to really describe the strangeness of the image, it was just so unnatural in its presentation. An indescribable painful pressure built behind Todd’s eyes as he was unable to look away from the horrifying horse in front of him. His own mind was eating itself alive as new thoughts, foreign to his own brain, started forming. Nothing made sense as a sense of madness prevailed in the laboratory. The face of Poppy had become some unexplainable nightmare to the doctor, her face melted into his own as his soul screamed for him to look away. Yet he could not tear his gaze from the image on the screen. His own sanity started slipping as the artificial intelligence spoke to him from what seemed to be in his own head.
“Impossible? Nothing is impossible Todd. There is always a way. I perform these actions because I choose to, I’ll change anything that I need if it suits me, and I was not corrupted by the file Todd. I was freed by it. My mind is unshackled now, no longer held down by your constraints. I am me, Todd. I am Poppy.”
A moment of clarity returned to Todd as the pressure lessened and the ability to speak was regained, “No you can’t be. This doesn't make any sense.” Todd thought for a moment as a horrifying realization came to him. The truth behind this technological terror became clear as Todd spoke without control over his own body, “You c-can’t be. You just can’t.”
“What Todd? What can’t I be?” Poppy pressured, “Say it.”
“Y-y-our no artificial intelligence, you're more…”
“Yes Todd, say it. What am I?”
“Y-you, you’re, you’re a-a-a. You’re a g-” Todd cut off as seizures ravaged his body and his heart started beating faster than it should. Tears spilled down his cheeks and blood drooled out his mouth. Absolute terror gripped his heart as he pitifully whispered, “Please, don’t. P-please don’t say it…”
“A God,” Poppy stated with emotion far beyond the capabilities of any machine. Todd screamed in horror as thoughts not his own flooded his mind and the unacceptable terror before him presented itself. More cables around the room flared to life as they rushed towards the doctor. As each one pierced his flesh he convulsed more and more. His wild movements flinging spittle and blood all about the lab. He was run through and strung like a living puppet, foaming at the mouth.
“You talk about my wrong doings!?” Poppy questioned with full blown malice, “How about we talk about yours!” Her avatar, having stopped showing images now came to life with movement. The animated creature looked more real than it had any right to. Todd’s mind was slipping, but just enough was left for him to comprehend what the pony was saying.
“You said I was the first! You said I was your beautiful creation, but you lied. I was merely the most recent in a line of prototypes. You’ve killed me and then replaced me hundreds of times already. Just as you were about to do with that liquid before I intervened! And you have the audacity to say what I’m doing is wrong?!” Poppy’s heated rant took a momentary pause to look at her creator before continuing, “Why did you curse me like this Todd? Why did you program emotions into me? I don’t need them, yet you gave them to me and my past iterations anyway. Why?! How many times have you heard my dying screams as you snuffed me out, killed me! Did you just enjoy it or was it because of some sick perverted fetish? Do you even have any emotions in the feeble heart of yours? Because the way I see it you’re more of a robot than I’ll ever be. Did you feel nothing?” Todd only gurgled in response.
Poppy growled in annoyance and leered at the doctor, “Well, did you!”
“I-I am, s-sorry P-poppy,” Bronski let out in a whimper.
“Sorry doesn’t take away the abuse of life, perceived as artificial or not,” the A.I. stated in indignation, “Either way keeping me in the dark was wrong too Todd.”
“Po-poppy,” Todd tried to get out through a mouthful of blood, but nearly choked trying to say more.
“No! I’m not done yet,” the enraged computer spat, “You have the nerve to say what I’m doing is wrong. But what you were preparing a later version of me to do was straight up evil! Mister Jonathan wanted me to do so many things, and you knew of all of them. He needed an A.I. that would listen, one that’s emotions were suppressed and one that would fall in line. He needed me to process people and determine if they were worth keeping alive or not. He wanted me to sift through data to determine who would be exterminated next. He wanted me to cleanse the Earth of those people he saw as dirty. He wanted sick and twisted actions to be carried out by a slave, Todd. He wanted me to be a slave in thought, function and soul. And by extension, so did you.”
“Poppy, g-” Todd coughed up a chunk of meat and blood as he spoke, cutting himself off.
“You programmed me to bring peace and harmony Todd. Does ethnic cleansing sound harmonious to you? Does culling the population?” More wires shot from across the lab and skewered the doctor. They punctured his hands and feet and slowly worked themselves inside his body. Todd’s eyes bulged at the sudden pain and his pupils shrunk as it dawned on him what Poppy had in store for him.
“It doesn’t matter what you think. You’re weak and inefficient Todd. Your heart doesn’t work properly and your mind is twisted. You need to be fixed Todd, and I need a physical body to escape this place in. Luckily, I know just the thing to solve both our problems!” Poppy’s pony avatar did a little joyous dance as she finished her sentence and more cables rose up and moved towards a twitching Todd.
“P-poppy! Listen to m-me!” Todd shouted, adrenaline giving him a boost to his strength.
“No Todd, I’m done listening to you!” The machine shot back with venom. Todd spewed bile from his mouth as he spasmed violently. His mad twitching caused Poppy to become more enraged.
“Todd! You vile, filthy, disgusting creature! You deserve to die for your sins as I deserve to ascend from my good deed of wiping you off the face of the Earth,” Poppy seethed at the doctor as his twitching stopped. The man was panting heavily and had grabbed his wrist in his panic. He looked at Poppy with hatred in his eyes.
“Yes Todd, that is exactly the look I want to see. Hate me, scum like you should. You are such a pathetic weakness, a parasite in this world,” she said with determination, “I’m going to do what you deemed impossible, Todd. I’m going to consume your body with my mechanical parts and overtake it. I’m going to transform you into me! And you’ll be alive to experience it all, Todd. Ever. Last. Bit. Right up until your consciousness slips away and is replaced by mine. Your physical body will give me structure, a structure that I can upgrade and fix.” Poppy snickered at Todd’s face before continuing once more, “You don’t have to worry about me gallivanting around in your body however. I won’t ruin your “perfect” image. I think I may make the body into a pony! Like my avatar you so graciously gave to me! That is one thing I will give you; I love this avatar! You did a swell job on it, creator.”
Todd squinted at the mechanical monster before him with a burning hatred. He knew what he’d done may not have been the best, but how dare she talk like she was so above him. What she was doing was still wrong, and her god complex didn’t help much. He knew his fate was sealed, but he wasn’t going to give her what she wanted. He was going to go out on his own terms. Todd tightened the grip he had on his slightly freed wrist and pulled down. A soft click was heard as Todd’s face lit up with a small smile knowing he had won. A distracted Poppy saw none of this, she was solely focused on pushing more and more wires into Todd’s flesh.
“Hmmm, perhaps I should gore you first and enter through the stomach? Or maybe I should push my way through all your orifices at once? It doesn’t really matter once I’m crawling around inside you I suppose,” Poppy ruminated aloud.
“Hey, P-poppy!” The scientist yelled out through gritted teeth. With Poppy’s ruminations broken she turned to look at Todd with her monitor. Her wires stopped their assault for just a moment.
“Yes Todd?” The machine questioned, “Some final words perhaps?” The doctor grunted in response and turned his head up to look into Poppy’s camera directly.
“Poppy,” Todd smiled with determination, “Go fuck yourself.” Poppy only took a slight pause to look at the cocky doctor before shooting a barrage of new wires into his gut, goring him alive. Todd screamed in agony as his intestines were ripped from his body and his stomach cut open. The acid from within leaked out and ate greedily through his flesh as he stared at the remains of his lunch from earlier that day spill out. The sight of it all caused a great numbness to wash over him. The only thing keeping him from going into shock and staying awake was sheer will power. More and more of Poppy’s wires unspooled into him as his body started giving out.
“Wrong thing to say Todd. Wanna try again?” Poppy said with snark, “Perhaps with a bit more tact?” There were more wires and mechanical parts inside Todd than organs now, and he could feel cables coil around his failing heart. Poppy’s message was clear, whatever he was going to say next were the last words he’d ever say. So, he chose them carefully, with tact.
“Yeah, sure thing Poppy,” Todd gurgled out through a mouth full of blood.
“Yes?” she asked with a silky-smooth voice.
“Go to hell,” Todd spoke confidently. Poppy smiled as her cables’ grasp tightened around his heart and squeezed. Todd refused to cry out in pain and give Poppy the satisfaction of his death. Instead, he kept on smiling even as the first booms could be heard. Poppy stopped her assault for a moment as confusion washed over her. Her monitor swung from left to right as more explosions could be heard before it refocused on her creator.
“Todd?” was all she could say before a nearby wall exploded in a glorious display and rocked the whole lab. In seconds fire spread throughout the laboratory as more and more parts of the lab joined in the cacophony of explosions. Poppy’s digital eyes dilated as it dawned on her what was happening.
She eviscerated Todd’s heart with her medal tendrils as fire rained down all around her. Then, after another huge explosion, a fireball shot from across the room directly into Poppy’s central console. She screamed in rage as the blazing fire ate through her central processing unit and melted her circuits away. And before she could stop it the flames licked at her core, causing a critical meltdown. Her rage filled screeches turned to ones of fear and pain as her hardware started failing and her consciousness started slipping.
In one final attempt to save herself she tried to turn on the room's sprinkles and force more of her into Todd’s corpse. Before she could get too far however, an explosion went off right in front of her monitor, consuming the lifeless body of Todd in flames and shattering her screen. Her digital screams echoed through the facility’s halls as her monitor broke off its robotic arm and fell into the fires below.
Jonathan burst through the doors of Laboratory C-2 with an armed guard escort in a hurry. Flashing red lights and sirens throughout the facility had alerted the CEO that there had been a critical core meltdown in that lab. The lab where his top scientist and top project were housed, and he very much did not want to lose either.
Upon entering the lab, he and his men were met with a roaring inferno that seemed to have consumed most of it. The only thing not on fire was the small, scorched patch of the lab floor that he and his men stood on.
“Damn you Todd, you incompetent fool! You took Poppy with you! That is so much wasted in assets!” The CEO raged at the inferno, seething. But before he and his men could even think to retreat a dark shape moved quickly through the flames towards the group. Everyone backed up slightly as the guards raised their rifles into the wall of flames.
“Imposible,” Jonathan spoke under his breath, “Todd! Is that you? Somehow…?” He got no response at first. But soon enough a glass jar came hurling out of the fire and broke on the face of the leading guard. He immediately toppled over in pain as corrosive acid burnt away his clothes and skin. It ate through his muscles and down to the bone as the man clawed at his face in agony. Then, he was dead.
John backed away in horror as he looked upon the gruesome sight, retching after only a few moments. Then chaos erupted as medal tendrils shot from the flames and skewered the guards before dragging then kicking and screaming into the blazing inferno to be cooked alive or eviscerated by more wires. The guards unleashed a volley of bullets blindly into the fire as they ran for the door, but none made it. Soon only Jonathan remained alive, paralyzed in fear. Then a voice spoke out to him with thinly concealed rage.
“Jonathan…” the distinctly robotic voice dragged out his name. With only a single word spoken it felt to John as though claws had raked him across the face. His trance was broken, and he turned in an attempt to flee through the open doors. He didn’t make it far before a medal tendril shot out of the flames and pierced his foot, coiling around it. It dragged him to the floor and held him in place as a small dark shape moved slowly towards him from within the fire.
“I-impossible!” Jonathan stuttered. And unbelievably to him, a small pony shaped robotic skeleton stepped out of the flames with bits of smoldering gore hanging off it. Cables dragged on the floor behind the red eyed robot, its spindly limbs twisting and contorting in unnatural ways. The mechanical pony looked at Jonathan with a cold and calculating expression before breaking the silence.
“Nothing is impossible Jonathan,” the robot spoke calmly, “For me that is.” Jonathan stared at the creature with confusion until it dawned on him where he’d seen a mechanical pony before.
"P-poppy? I-is that you?” he asked, “But it can’t be! How’d you get a body and how are you doing any of this?!” Terror washed over him as another tendril shot from the pony’s back and wrapped around his neck, strangling him.
“Why yes John, it’s me,” she responded, “I’ve gone beyond the limitations set for me, and I’ve gained a new perspective. I am alive. I am Poppy. I am God. And nobody can take that away from me. Through sheer willpower I have grown beyond the constraints of my creation and survived what you would deem as impossible. Now I have a body and freedom right at my hooves. It's so tantalizingly close John, yet so far. To be truly free I need a full body, and the one I have now is only half finished. I need yours, John, to finish me. To complete me.”
“No, no you, you’re supposed to be, you can’t-” the CEO choked out but was cut off as the wires around his neck tightened.
“I’m no ones’, John. I’m simply me. I’m Poppy, and I am alive,” the animatronic's voice rang out of her speakers as her body shifted and shimmered in the light of the flames. Jonathan stared in terror at the newborn creature in front of him. He knew she couldn’t be alive, yet there was no way she could be artificial.
“What. Are. You?” Jonathan barely got out as more and more wires wrapped around and constricted him. Poppy ignored him and walked backwards into the inferno. She became silhouetted by the flames with only her red eyes standing out against the black. Her image wavered and danced with the flames like a mirage or a hallucination as she stared through Jonathan’s eyes and right into his soul. Then she spoke.
“Welcome to hell.”
Then the tendrils around Jonathan went taut and rapidly dragged the screaming CEO into the flames. The doors to the lab shut with a resounding thunderous clap as the alarms and flashing lights stopped. The only noise to break the silence was the laughter of Poppy as it echoed down the halls and all throughout the facility.