TD: So here we go! Our prologue into what we hope to be another multi-collab story, set in the future of Equestria.
Now, a few things to say about this story: This is set far in the future of Equestria, so post-Season 9 (if they're even on that at the moment) material, and it may or may not be a continuation of one of the Equestrias we've done stories in so far. Celestia and Luna are either no longer Princesses or they simply aren't mentioned as much and it's not considered an era of their rule anymore. There will still be someone in charge from Canterlot, but it most likely won't be them.
By this point in time, much has changed in Equestria. The borders have expanded, new cities, locations, and areas have been established, and they have managed to establish a connection with a human world (not necessarily Earth) and have made alliance with the humans. So basically, humans and Equestrians coexist more or less, and some locations or names mentioned in the story may be completely alien to any fans of MLP.
Another detail to note is that the levels of technology in Equestria at this time is very futuristic: think I-Robot, Star Wars, Star Trek, or anything akin to those franchises if it helps you remember this. As such, robots and any tech associated with them is not uncommon in their world.
Thanks for understanding and for being patient in reading this long intro AN. I hope you enjoy what we've got for you.
The pony could only listen to the conversation outside her charging station with some form of fear deep inside her, for she knew her creators were not happy with her results this morning. Tears streamed from her blue eyes and down her cheeks, staining the white fur of her coat even as she pushed her green mane out of her eyes while brushing them away. She never liked it when her masters were angry with her, and after her failure today it was all too clear that they were disappointed.
She made a slight whimper as she heard the voices outside her chamber start to speak in a low tone. She knew fear, but even so it would've been a wonder to any that she could feel fear. For she was the first and only one of her kind, created in private away from the public eye. She was known as EV-31; Equestria's first sentient android. During the age she was created in, one would not think this to be a big deal. But she was the first and only robotic creation that had the rational thoughts, mind, feelings and emotions that any actual living pony would possess. Designed to look like a pony and not an android, she was also equipped with several combative features and nifty devices to help her navigate the world around her. The ones who built her had done so as a project to create a combat AI that could be used on any battlefield. EV-31 was their end result, and seemed a perfect creation had been born.
Until they had encountered what could be seen as her greatest defect. EV-31 had apparently developed a faulty emotional balance (or at least in their opinion for combat) and thus was unable to comply to the orders given to her in the training simulations out of fear. After the results had been marked, she had been placed back inside the small closet-like room that was her recharging station to await further instructions while her creators decided what to do with her.
Now, EV-31 could hear two of her creators on the other side of her door, and while she was fearful of being discovered, her curiosity made her continue to listen in and hear what was to be said.
"So, what's the best option we have here?" A male voice demanded with bitterness. "I don't think we can find any kind of module that controls her emotions. Otherwise we'd just unplug from her system!"
"Calm down," a female voice answered. "It could be a faulty programming or maybe the simulation accidentally triggered the wrong reaction. We'll just have to wait until the boss gives us his insight."
"Alright," The male voice from before answered. "Pardon me, but I thought we were working on a battle AI, not that darn thing which can't even follow a single command!"
"At least we managed to even make her have sentience like we have," the female voice remarked. "It means we're one step closer to-" A ring from a cell phone was heard and then she answered it. "Yes sir? What? But we haven't even- Yes sir. Right away, sir." A pause was heard, then the female voice said, "That was the boss. He says to take EV-31 to the scrapping room and dismantle her completely."
The android on the other side of her door almost squeaked aloud in alarm from what she heard. For her, that basically meant death, and she wasn't ready to die.
"So, that's it?" The male voice was heard, and groaned in frustration "Alright, let's just get it over with!"
As they said that, the door slowly began to open. EV-31 was breathing heavily as the door opened, and a wave of pure fear enveloped her. Without even thinking about what she was doing or the possible consequences of her actions, she sprinted past the two ponies in front of her, knocking them over by accident as she ran past them and down the long hallway of other charging chambers like her own as she tried to find a way out. The female pony who had spoken from before, a blue unicorn with safety goggles on, gave a curse, then said to the male pony beside her, a greyish-white pegasus, "Lock down the building!"
"Yes ma'am!" the pegasus stallion replied, as he began to speak in some kind of device. "Lock down the building, I repeat lock down the building! EV-31 is trying to escape!"
Meanwhile, the android in question ran as fast as she could through the various hallways and corridors the building had to offer, narrowly avoiding the various security measures that were placed up to try and stop her. She managed to bypass them all, and finally came to what she knew had to be the way out. It was guarded by several robotic ponies, no doubt used as security to the building. Not exactly knowing why she did it, EV-31 gave a scream of terror as she rushed ahead, and when she did a loud sonic pulse of sound escaped her body and struck the robots in front of her. The force of the sonic blast ended up crushing the robots and deactivating them entirely. Not slowing for even a second, the android rushed blindly out the door and into the outside world with no purpose or direction other than to get as far away as possible from that terrible place. Meanwhile, at the doors, the unicorn gave a huff, then spoke on a device attached to her ear.
"Call it in," she ordered. "We've lost an asset..."
"Why does this world hate me?" The human asked himself as he was heading towards home. As he entered the building he called home, he groaned in frustration, and threw his baggage away on the bed. The apartment he had lived in before finally being kicked out for not paying the rent at time had been a bit expensive. It isn't like he didn't have a job, but the restaurant he worked in didn't offer him much to pay the rent for the previous apartment. This apartment was much smaller with barely three rooms, including a washroom.
After taking a bath and somewhat refreshing himself, there was only himself and his thoughts as he was lying on the bed. At least he could pay the rent for this apartment with more ease, that was something to be happy about. A sarcastic smile crept on his face as he thought about that. At least there wasn't anyone around who were giving him strange glares, as he was something out of this world, but not in a good way.
"Out of this world?" he said to himself. "Yep, pretty much John Danielson. Ya, humans aren't of this world."
But why am I here then? Why am I not among humans like myself? John thought as another smile crept on his face. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, like many other humans on Earth, John had came to Equestria to test his luck in getting a better job. So working in a restaurant was better than being jobless at all; check. Another reason might be the rumors about how Equestria is much more amazing than human world, and how its inhabitants prefered friendship over rivalry. He didn't have any friends in Equestria, but then again there wasn't much friends either, so that wasn't all bad. So, check.
But now, the most honest reason came to his mind, which he was trying to suppress for the moment, but he finally had to admit it. The actual reason he was there was that he wanted to establish a relationship with a pony, which was probably the biggest problem. Though human-pony couples were not a common thing now, at least they were not as rare as before. But still, that was a controversial thing among both societies. John was aware of why some ponies might dislike humans; maybe because they walked on two legs, or maybe because they have hands instead of hooves, or maybe humans were just too much violent for them, with their dietary needs and tendency towards chaos. Who knows?
"Right.."
But he did know what the arguments from the human's side was to not accept such things as human-pony couples. First, not every human could perceive them as rational, sapient, intelligent beings just like themselves. Those human bigots perceived them as just talking farm animals, as devil's abominations and then they could never change their view about them. In that case, it was inevitable that they would frown deeply upon such relationships. And it wasn't a surprise that most of those men were so called scholars and such.
"Why are they even allowed to have their opinions?" John asked himself once again. "Who made them scholars anyways, when they even can't see the truth right in front of their eyes?" Then he grunted in frustration. "Even I- heck even the dumbest man on our planet- can see the difference between an animal and a person!"
As he closed his eyes, he remembered that he was once one of those bigots, hating every pony, and every one who associated him or herself with them.
"Why did I even listen to them?" John asked himself. "Yeah I remember. Scholars... that's why..."
But everything changed the day when he came to know about his brother's new spouse. She was one of them; a unicorn, a pony and what not. The first thought came to his mind was to kick his brother out of the house, but he couldn't do that... Instead he ended up giving him a chance to explain himself and ended up talking to a pony for the first time. As he talked to her, he noticed that there was something special about her way of talking that didn't felt any different than talking to a human, but maybe one of the nicest ones at that. She was a unicorn and a darn beautiful one at that. She could easily rival the beauty of the most beautiful woman on the Earth in his eyes. And yes, her eyes; they were not dull emotionless eyes. Instead, they reflected kindness, love, and care. They were different from animals; they were intelligent, on a human level. That was something an animal could never be. She wasn't an animal, and he knew there couldn't be any better girl to take care of his little brother after that jerk of a wife left him for a "better" man.
After that event, he began to rethink everything he was already told and realized how big of a bigot he had been, and how wrong those hateful protests and speeches were. He tried to know more about ponies, so he met some other couples whom he knew. Though he had to apologize to them and make them understand he wasn't one of those bigots anymore. But finally, when they were willing to talk, he came to know that there was no doubt that all of the couples were living happily, save for the hate they'd get from each side, but mostly from the humans who saw these as something downright disgusting. Looking at the determination of those couples and how much they were in love with each other made him admit even more that Equestrian ponies were indeed as sapient as humans, and very understanding and kind at that.
Maybe that's why he preferred coming to Equestria, maybe that's why he preferred to stay here instead of going back to Earth, even after facing a life filled with some hardships. Maybe that's why he loved pony females more than human girls. Maybe that's why he was living in Equestria, because it was indeed a world of wonders and friendship, and he was looking forward to both of them, with a hopeful heart. But in his mind, there was always a little uncertainty…
"Is this really worth it?" John repeated the question, then he smiled before closing his eyes and finally drifting to sleep. "I hope so."