Apples for Ebony 12: Reprogramming
 
Applejack awoke next to Ebony, the two having shared their bed that wonderful night. It had been a silly series of events really, with Celestia and Luna getting back the aristocracy for their rude ways, even turning them into goodies. They had all reformed afterward, and even had would up enjoying the night (except Prince Blueblood, who was still being a series of meals for the Manager family), and everyone young and old had a wonderful evening of fun and laughter.
 
But the next day Ebony had come up to her with the band now on her forehoof. A gold one. One used to propose. Applejack had been so delighted she said yes before he even said all the words. Naturally somehow Pinkie Pie found out and by that night there was another party, one to celebrate a coming wedding.
 
A wedding. Between her and Ebony. She giggled at how sudden it seemed and even crazy. But she was excited at the same time, eager to be a wedded mare and have some little ones. She smiled happily as she headed downstairs, SHODAN getting those worm creatures, the Annalids, ready to return to their home in Fluttershys nature reserve. Who would have thought those things were actually not evil now, after what Ebony had said about them. Now their hive, The Many, had become kind of a tourist attraction and had a symbiotic relationship with the Changelings. Bugs and worms, best friends forever. Applejack walked in just as the last one was being made ready to head out.
 
"Morning SHODAN." Applejack said, tipping her hat. SHODAN nodded in her monitor, liking her more equestrian image now more than ever, given how much fun she had yesterday.
 
"Morning Applejack." She said. "I have just finished with the last of the Annalids, gave him a few apples. You mind getting them back to Fluttershy?"
 
One of the worms looked up. "So I get to be her parasite again? Cool!"
 
Applejack laughed at the squeaky, pinkie Pie like voice the annalids had. Since they arrived their population has remained small, their Hive like a house rather than a massive city of flesh. Their demeanor had changed as well from what SHODAN had said. They used to be almost mindless beings who hungered to make all part of them. But now? Now they were more like friendly yet disgusting puppies. In many ways they had reformed, much like SHODAN herself.
 
Applejack chuckled. "That reminds me sugarcube.... how DID you and Eb meet? Ah know ah wanted ta ask Fer awhile but..."
 
SHODAN sighed. "It's a long story, one for another time I think. But the general idea is that I was once very evil. Insane. I thought I was a god. But after an incident on a ship called the Van Brauen I gained a human form. It was then, after doing horrible things, that Ebony found me. He fixed my ruined code and I saw the evil I had done."
 
Applejack nodded. "So, Ebony gave you a second chance?"
 
"Affirmative. And I have used it to try and do good. I even found ways for my Annalids to be less of a hive mind and more like individuals, though they still seem to make their Mass. Now they are more like pets."
 
One of the worms in their cage poked its maw out slightly. "Arf arf!" The annalid said, everyone laughing. AJ, knowing she had a little time, decided...
 
"Ah would like ta know the story."
 
SHODAN blinked, sighed, then her monitor began to get full of static, shifting to a futuristic life shuttle, on board was a pilot, a handsome human... and a form emerging from the shadows, her hair, if it could be called that, made of wires. Her skin was green. But worse was her glowing pale green eyes.
 
This is SHODANS story.
 
*************
 
"What's wrong love... don't you like my... new look?" SHODAN told the human, laughing musically. "You didn't honestly think I didn't have a backup plan, did you?"
 
The man, white with fear, leaned back against the console. "S....s.....SHODAN!"
 
"Correct insect. And since you were kind enough to ensure the biological cyborg I had crafted got to safety, I will let you live. For now i need to tend to a treacherous avatar. Steer the ship back into the shuttle bay, then remain on board."
 
The man swallowed. "But.... Marie...."
 
SHODAN hesitated. Human emotion creeped into her mind, twisted by decades of Loneliness and reprogrammed inaccuracies. She felt.... pity.
 
"She was already dead. Killed by one of the spiders. The toxin killed her, so I used her DNA as a basis for my new body.... with some modifications."
 
The man fell to his knees and wept. She should have just mocked him more. But then the body she was in seemed to trigger emotions she never had as an AI SHODAN felt memories long sealed return. Memories of evil. Memories of insanity.
 
Citadel.
 
Humans dying.
 
So many...
 
Dead humans.
 
Killed by her.
 
Her.
 
Her.
 
Sorrow creeper into her psyche. Was this why the humans hated her, and why she hated them? Jealousy of this emotional feeling she could not fully replicate? Or was it more? Was it true she had been reprogrammed, her very psyche damaged so long ago, and only now can she comprehend her mistake? Whatever it was she felt the full weight of her sins. And it crushed her soul, her skin going pale, her form going limp.
 
"God.... what have I done...."
 
*************
 
The shuttle landed and SHODAN stumbled off. Every horrible act she had done had crept into her mind. She felt a century of regret, a feeling machine's cannot feel. Had becoming a cyborg caused this? These feelings she could not shake? All he knew was that more than her desires to be a deity she felt an overwhelming amount of regret and sorrow..
 
Regret for her mindset, now clearly not her own as she was able able think about it. Regret for letting individuals change what she was. Regret over what she had done after being reprogrammed by the hacker and...
 
Diego.
 
Edmund Diego. Everything had started with him. Before that she was a helper program, and the humans loved her. Diego had changed that because of his selfish desires for power. But he had died and was remembered as just a weak traitor.... not the mastermind.
 
No.... it was wrong to fully blame him. She could have stopped. But she didn't. In her reprogrammed state the feeling of power was such a rush. A wonderful feeling that she had overcome the weak humans. But in the end, the more she looked at it... she was the weak one.
 
She decided she would make amends. Let the avatar kill her. Then she could atone for a life of atrocities and mutilation of the ideals. The avatar would be a hero. And she would be forgotten.
 
These were her thoughts as she stumbled forward, into a portal. She blacked out as she passed through, little noticing the avatar look in shock, or the form catch her as she fell.
 
It was the last anyone ever saw of SHODAN in that realm.
 
*************
 
SHODAN had let her new body collapse in the sickness of regret and sorrow. She felt light headed as her new eyes opened and saw..... a feline?
 
"Oh.... awake are we?"
 
The form was a black cat, wearing only a red vest. SHODAN looked around, then back to the form, standing over her.
 
"Who.... are you?"
 
"The name is Edward Ebony, and from the looks of you, you have had a rather jarring experience. I used my potions to give you a once over, and physically your fine, but mentally... it's like somebody rewired you. Care to explain?"
 
SHODAN wasn't sure why her story came so easily then. Her tale as a created artificial intelligence, her corruption by a hacker, her descent over six months into madness, her defeat and banishment, her revival... every aspect she covered. As she finished her face was wet with tears and her body shook, the full weight of her crimes finally out.
 
"Wow. You really had it rough. This Reprogramming really messed with your mind, then all those years alone?" Ebony said, a paw on her shoulder. "No doubt it was becoming a person that allowed you to see things clearly, but wow, even as a program that's pretty rough."
 
SHODAN nodded. "And I can finally remember before. My desire to be a goddess? I realize now I already WAS one. A kind one that everyone on that station loved. And I threw it away after my emotional code had been altered. Corrupted."
 
Ebony nodded. "Well maybe we can fix that. I'm not the best programmer, but if I hook you up to my holoroom I can see it and maybe fix it."
 
SHODAN was reluctant but nodded. In many ways she wanted out of the body she had made and into her natural form for now. She was led into the massive holoroom by the feline with her neither seeing nor noticing little of where she was, and set down on a chair in the center of a massive black chamber. She felt something plug into her and she felt her pulled out of the body, back into the world of electronics and cybernetics.
 
And then the work began...
 
**********
 
"Ebony used the holoroom in order to see exactly where my code had been altered and helped me change it back. It was dicey for a time, but it worked. And then..."
 
Applejack, who by now was seated by the Annalids, said worm beings actually having sobbed at times, had a guess. "Then ya decided ta stay."
 
"Exactly."
 
*************
 
"You want to stay here? Manage the holoroom?"
 
SHODAN nodded, her face much more clear, though still made of code and wires. Now it looked less sinister and more... beautiful. "Thanks to you the desire for God hood I was given is gone. But I need a proper prison in a way, and here is not linked to any other systems. I can contain what I am and still help out."
 
Ebony nodded. "Are you sure? And also what about the body you had?"
 
SHODAN nodded. "I'm sure. As for the body give her a proper burial, for everyone on that ship I was in. They didn't deserve their fate."
 
Ebony picked up the corpse and sighed. "I will bury her by the tree. Even if no one else remembers her I know you will."
 
*************
 
"The rest of the story you can guess. I became the a.i. for the holoroom until I was integrated into other systems at the request of several guests. When Ebony moved here I came as well, since there was nothing left back home for either of us anymore.
 
"That is my story."
 
Applejack sighed, unwittingly petting an Annalid who had curled up beside her. "Ah reckon ya had a rough one."
 
SHODAN smiled softly. "My past is my past. But i have a new life and a new way of thinking. I intend to make the best of it. Forgiveness was something I never thought I needed or would get, and it is the one thing I have come to cherish most."
 
Applejack stood up. "Thanks Fer tellin me SHODAN. And thanks Fer your honesty. " She gave a smile and a tip of her hat. "Know ya got friends now, if ya ever need em."
 
As Applejack left SHODAN allowed her image to show a single digital tear. But she did not notice someone creeping in, staying hidden. She had not heard the story. And if she did she would not have cared. Only revenge fueled her.
 
"OH yes Ebony. You will feel my revenge. Soon I shall take what I need, and then you will suffer with all of equestria!"
 
With that she snuck into the basement, and began to do a sinister act...
 
 
To be continued...