Chapters
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Sweetie Belle had a long time to think, about a whole list of different things. Once, her world had been a place where everything was horrible but made painful sense. Now all the pain was gone, the hospital was gone, the doctors constantly prodding her and injecting her and muttering sad things to her family. Not a single one had arrived today to tell her how grim her outlook was for the day, or to ask if it hurt.Yes, it hurt, it always hurt, now could they make it stop?The pain was gone now, yet Sweetie…-
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Lucid's next day was a flurry of activity. It was never his first choice to be up so early in the morning. But once the prototype was up, she refused to sit still. She would probably run off on her own again, potentially causing herself all kinds of worse damage if he didn't intervene. In a single weekend, he'd gone from a hobbyist tinkerer to perhaps the first pony to set hoof onto an incredible road of life extension and medicine, one never before considered. But that meant incredible pressure for him:…
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The knocking came on Sweetie's door, as clear in her new ears as ever. Part of her wished she could get away with hiding in her bed—but she knew better than to try. A meeting like this might never happen again. If she messed it up now..."Come in!" she called, sounding far more confident than she really felt. "I'm here."Seconds later, the door swung open, and Apple Bloom was standing there.The little earth pony was slightly taller than Sweetie expected. The last time she'd been with her friends, she…
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What was it like to live as an intelligent machine? Never a question that Sweetie Belle had ever thought to answer—or anypony else she knew of, for that matter. It wasn't even a question she could've known existed until the moment she woke up as one. How could a machine be alive? That was the question that troubled Apple Bloom. Once introduced to the idea, it became a hostile pattern in her mind and troubled her as well.She asked Lucid Storm during his next visit only a few days later. He came with…
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It took a few more weeks, as it turned out. Summer was just about halfway over when she got to make her first trip across Ponyville—a walk all the way to the Apple family farm. That would be good enough—it wasn't like she visited Scootaloo at her home very much anyway.That trip wasn't made during the cover of night, keeping her from being accidentally seen. It was her first time out in the open. "Are you sure you're ready?" Rarity asked, lingering near the back-door of her store. "It could be…
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Sweetie Belle had a bevy of strange experiences since she woke up. It was unnatural to come back from the dead, both for her and everyone around her. But nothing quite prepared her for what it was like to circle her own body—a mechanical corpse, waiting to be born.Lucid was there of course, wearing a lab coat laundered and starched for the cameras. Just as the first moment she woke up, this was as big a moment for him as it was for her. With the activation of that body, he would make another step to…
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40.3 K •
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Sweetie Belle could get used to her new body. It wasn't the kind of lesson she could learn in a day, or even a week. There was no magic switch she could flip and suddenly be comfortable with her greater height, strength, and grace. All that took the adaptation circuits Lucid had told her about, and that hardware took a long time to work. But it did work.As the days passed, she became far less overwhelmed by the return of two old but familiar senses. Touch and smell were back, far stronger than she had…
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They didn't stay together much longer that night. Scootaloo insisted on walking her home, in a constant state of awkward silence. She had plenty of opportunities to test her new ability to smell and feel.Eventually they were back at the Boutique. They just looked at each other, with neither daring to speak. Sweetie reached for the handle, then pulled back. She ought to say something after a night like that."I hope I didn't go too far," her friend finally said. "If you were uncomfortable, you can tell me.…
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Just like that, the comparison was finished. She looked up from her other desk, setting down the library books that had occupied her attention during the intervening time. Outside her room, the sun was fully up, lighting the town beyond with creamy yellow. If she wanted, she could go out into that warmth and explore it, without having to be constantly watching for where she would find her next charger. It was almost as good as being alive. But she wouldn't be going out just then, not with something much…
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It was a good thing Sweetie Belle had the entire night to think about what she would say next. She'd known this conversation would happen sooner or later. If she tried to make it later, her friend might just die of anxiety. Her little hummingbird heart could only take so much stress."If you can let me go at my own pace—and if you can be okay with being with a mechanical pony. And... if you can be okay with not knowing if it will work out. Nopony has ever tried to have a special somepony who was made of…
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