/bootleg/ Fiddly Twang

By redwritefag

>You sigh, shifting your car into park. Leaning your head back into your seat's headrest, you ponder whether or not your life's headed in the right direction
>You work at the city's train station, earning quite a good wage at the expense an aching body loading cargo
>You exit your vehicle, walking out of the parking lot next to your apartment. The cool night wind blows against your tired face
>You trudge through the painful flight of stairs, three floors up to your room
Hergh...
>You unlock your door, entering, not bothering with anything except the chair to your computer. Located inside your bedroom of course
>Your apartment room isn't very big. A living room kitchen mix when you first enter, leading into a hallway that branches out into the single bedroom, the bathroom, and the washroom/storage room
>You load up your favorite online board, where memes are birthed. Something's gotta keep you entertained. You're quite lonely, ever since you moved out of your folk's
"... This shit again..."
>You roll your eyes, seeing that the trend of advanced AI pony companions are STILL the craze
>Expensive. Shady. ... Oddly attractive
>You remember that your handsome check comes in today. That, along with what you save off to the side, leaves quite enough money to--
"No. I'm not gonna blow half my fucking savings on... this... "
>You sigh. Your hands falls onto your mouse as you click some anon's hyperlink to the manufacturer's website
>Yup. Shady. Just as you expected. The pictures displaying the products are quite intruiging, but the website looks poorly coded and designed
...
>You check your online bank account in a new tab, like if it were second nature
"... Mmrh. I do have 'some' money to blow... I guess."
>You tab back to the shady website. You aren't too familiar with My Little Pony, as you've only seen chumps post about it online, and save for a handful of episodes you've seen
>You hesistantly scroll through the merchandise. It looks quite tempting, and the fact that they're ponies doesn't really bother you. Could be worse. Could be a fox wearing panties or some shit
>You find a particular pony that chatches your eyes. Fiddly Twang. She's more expensive than some of the other options here but isn't the most expensive
She's... cute. Hmm.
>You say aloud without thinking about it
>After too long spend pondering the decision, you finally move your mouse to the checkout button
"Welp. There' goes 15k."
>You feel a pit in your stomach forming after the purchase. You feel like you've made a mistake.
>The shady website states that it'll be there by tomorrow afternoon, no later than the evening
"Least they got some high priority shipping."
>You lift your tired body off of your chair. You're ready to retire for the night
>You give yourself a quick shower before slumping into your bed, laying on your belly
"... Hegh... don't bother stressing about it anymore, Anon. You've already done the deed."
>The morning comes. You're up and at'em after a good night's rest during the early hours of 6 in the morning. Today's your last day before your three day break. You're quite thrilled
>Tossing on your uniform after a hearty bacon, eggs, and ham breakfast, you're out the door and down the stairs to your car
>You barely remembered the pricey purchase you made last night, but now's no time to contemplate it. You start the engine and get moving towards your tough job
>Your day goes by without a hitch. The load today was quite easy, needing only to lift easy stuff like two-by-fours and some fibreglass
>You wipe the sweat off your forehead as you clock out, giving your workbuddy a fist bump before heading off to your car
"Finally. I get to see where all the money went."
>You drive off, a little faster than the speed limit. You're nervous and excited at the same time. Who knows? Maybe it will do your laundry for you. Cook you breakfast. Clean your room
>You park in your usual parking spot, wasting no time. You practically preform stadiums heading up the stairs. You stop at the lip of the third flight of stairs, looking down the hall to your door
>There it is. A large cardboard box. Ducktapped in an overcompensating manner.
>You walk slowly down the hall, greeting the box with a soft touch
>It's bigger than you thought. The box meets you at your bellybutton
>You unlock your door, pushing the suprisingly light box inside
>You leave it in the center of your living room, closing your door and locking it
"Phew. Alright. Let's see now..."
>A quick trip to your storage room gets you the necessary tools to open this oddly packaged box
>The main upside of your physically rigorous job is that it leaves you stronger than the average joe. Opening the box was, even then, an annoying task. Layers and layers of duct tape. The box itself was oddly grippy
>You finally get it open. You peek inside and see...
>A shit ton of packing peanuts. Like, almost overflowing the box. Atop rests a CD and a strange USB cable packed inside a plastic baggy
>You take those out and set them aside, digging through the mass of peanuts
'BAP'
>You hit something
"Bingo."
>You reach both hands in, taking out a rather small box, compared to the one it was shipped in. The small box is black with decals all over it
>Fiddly Twang, Country Mare!
>Some disclamers, some age warnings, some art of the pony herself
>You sit down on your sofa with it on your lap. >You carefully open the box by hand, seeing as you don't want to cut anything, or leave the box intact in case you want a refund
>You get it open. You look inside. You're ready. You're not ready. You're everything at once.
... W- ... What the...?
>Inside, you see this... little football like... thing. It has terribly washed out colors. It looks like it was stitched last minute
T... This... No. No fucking way. No fucking way!
>You set the box down quickly and book it to your room, sitting on your computer. You bring up the board, hoping to find that one anon's hyperlink
>There it is. You click it. You're sweating beads
>404 Error! Not found
... ... ...
>You slump back into your chair. You facepalm with both hands, dragging them down your face
... Son of a bitch, man. Just...
>You glance at the error again
Son of a bitch...
>You grunt in annoyance as you pull yourself up, walking back to the little disgrace you downed so much money on
>You sit down on the sofa again, taking the little pony out of the box
>You hold it infront of you with both hands. It even feels cheap
...
>You sigh, setting it down next to you. You get the little CD it came with. You also look at the odd USB cable it came with
>It's definitely a USB cable, but the connector on the other end is one you've never seen before. You reckon its specific to the pony itself
>Pony, cable, and CD in hand, you make a defeated walk towards your computer. You wonder if this shit will give you a virus
>You don't seem to care at this point. You spend so much money in this thing, you might as well try to do something with before you destroy it
>You set the pony down next to your tower before hesitantly taking the CD and put it in your disk drive
>You then take the cable and plug it into your computer. You look for the plug that leads for the pony
>You find it located at the back of the pony's head, under its really low-quality cow...thing hat
>You toss the hat off and plug it in. When you do, a window appear on your computer
>It seems to be instructions and more disclaimers
"Software will now install. Pony must charge before full use. Charge will take up to 6 hours. Click Continue to proceed"
>You lazily move your mouse to the Continue button. You half-expect your computer to just explode right there
>It miraculously doesn't. A little green bar starts to fill
H-H-Hello! Howdy! H-Hola! K-Ko-Konnichiwa!
>You almost shit yourself from the sudden outburst from the robot next to you. It's eyes suddenly light up, flicker a little
P-Privet! Ni-Hao! Please tell me your language of preference! Porfavor, dime tu lenguaje de preferencia! Gengo na no ni ichiba--
ENGLISH!
>You shout, before it has a chance to ramble on
... ... English! Is this correct?
YES!
>You shout at it again, unsure if you should be
>It's eyes shut off again, and it seems to be off
...
>You sigh, looking at the little failure sitting standing next to you
... Fifteen-hundred. For this piece of shit. This IS NOTHING like what was advertised! How many people has this company ripped off!? Fucking-- Aaagh! Mrrgh!
>You claw at your hair, gritting your teeth
>It's eyes flicker on again
>You look at it with a judgmental look
>It looks like it... frowns... for a second
>You reel back
>It's eyes turn off
>You continue looking at it, unsure if what you saw... is what you saw...
>You continue to stare at the little bot for a few seconds longer, still wondering if your eyes were playing tricks on you. It's not active right now, is it?
>It seems to be off. Maybe it was some software being booted up or something. There's no way it was a provoked reaction...
>Right?
>You glance down at your computer's clock to show that it's already 23:08. Not that you have anything to wake up for, your rest days have just begun. But you're on a waiting game with this little pony right now
>You look towards the green bar filling in the window on your PC. It's not even a tenth of the way up
... Hehh...
>You return your attention to the still pony. It has a little smile as its 'default' facial expression it seems
> ... Probably isn't even capable of genuine emotion anyways, you think
>With a stretch and a yawn, some bones popping in your back, you sit up and decide to leave your PC running over night
>A quick shower, a small late dinner, and a lot of thinking later, you sink into your bed, chest facing up
>The only thing that provides light in your bedroom is your computer monitor. You usually keep your blinds closed, regardless of being on the third floor
>With a contemplative exhale, you close your eyes and hope the exterior was the worst of your purchase. Perhaps you're not looking at what's within
...
>You hope that there's anything within at all

>Your eyes crack open slowly
>You inhale deeply as you stretch your aching body. Work really puts stress on your muscles. Good thing it only comes to the benefit of your health
>You lazily rise, rubbing your eyes as you sit on the edge of your bed>Glancing over to your computer screen, you see that the green bar has filled. There's some text that appeared as a notification on the bottom right of your screen
>You get up, shaking off your sleep as you walk towards your computer
>You plop down at your chair and examine the news. The little notification on the bottom right...
"Charging complete! Please unplug the charger cable."
>The box with the filling green bar now has the Continue button flashing blue
> With a sigh, you click it. The box now reads...
"Congratulations! Your ponybot is now ready for full use! Upon exiting the installer, the pony will activate. Thank you for choosing @#%%#?$!"
>The message kind of intimidates you a bit. The company seems to be... redacted in some way. And you're feeling anxious about your pony actually "waking up"
"... Ergh..."
>You close the installer. You then unplug the charging cable from the back of your Fiddly Twang. It remains motionless...
>Its eyes light up, glowing bright cyan
>Its 'off resting face' now forms into that generic smile you saw on the packaging
>It looks around for a second, silent as a mouse. Not mechanical hoo-ha making sounds in her systems
>Its eyes lock onto you
>You're starstruck when the smile of the little ponybot fades away
>She... frowns a bit. Looking almost resentful
>Your face contorts unintentionally to a face of visible dicomfort
>Suddenly, like if the little pony noticed this, she speaks up
H-Hrrr- Howdy! I'm your new... Fiddly Twang!
>The most forced smile appears on the little mare's face... it's bathed in... shame
>Your heart starts to sink
"Wait! No! She isn't capable of feeling. She's just a robot! Right? Right!?"
>You clear you throat, your sleepiness jumping out of you like scared frog
Eherm. Hey. I'm Anon. Just call me that from now on.
>She little pony nods twice, that soulless smile still plastered on her face
... U-Um... are you... alright?
>Your question seems to take Fiddly by surprise, as her face shifts to a startled one
F-Fine as a s-spring day! Anon!
>There's that smile again...
"... This can't be real..."
>You decide to just put your cards on the table
... You don't look fine. It looks like someone made you eat a lemon before forcing you into a photo shoot.
>You cross your arms, waiting for a reply. Her depressing smile resists
>It resists
>It resists
>It resists...
>It fails
>It finally drops. Her eyes stop looking at you and fall towards the gound
I woke up for the first time... I was really really happy.
>She smiles solemnly
And the first thing I hear in my operating time was... that I was shit. A rip off.
>Her smile grows slightly wider, her eyes squinting
"No... no. Oh, fuck nononono, she can't cry, right? Please tell me she can't cry. This isn't..."
...
...
"... Fuck."
>A black hole has formed in your insides. You feel you eating away at yourself
>You know for certain that coming up with some stupid lie would just make things worse
>You lean back in your chair, holding your head
I-I'm sorry fer not being what you expected...
>She says in a quiet voice. Did you not know who it was speaking, you'd mistake her for a human female
>Your soul is frozen