Zephyr Tries New Tech

Spending the day at home as usual, waiting for Master to return from work. You did all your chores like a good girl should hours ago, so you’ve been lounging about aimlessly.

Your ears perk up, catching the faint noise from the next room: the garage door opener whirring up.

The whirring noise of the garage opening immediately kicks your heart into overdrive. “Master’s home! He’s home he’s home! Aaaaaaa!”

You can barely contain your excitement as this five-times-a-week event happens yet again. Not that it was any different the last 67 times, but still!

You know the whole process by ear (pressed to the door of course): Master’s car pulls into the garage, parks, gets out and comes straight to the door to pick you up and hug you.

Listening though, you hear something different. He opened one of the car doors again? You can hear a plastic bag of some kind. Puzzled with your face scrunched up and ear on the door, you forget that the door opens inward. Your whole tiny body gets gently pushed along with the door as Master steps in.

Master walks in, looks around into the home puzzled that you’re not at the door like usual. “Zephyr! Where are you girl! I’ve got a surprise for you!” He sets what seems like a blue plastic shopping bag on the table to the side of the room.

You sheepishly tip-hoof out from behind the door before quickly clambering across the tile floor, colliding your rather insignificant weight into as tight a leg hug as you can manage. “Eeeeeee! I’m so glad you’re home!”

Amused by your little ambush Master lifts his leg up and your whole body with it before holding you on your back and snuggling the giggles out of you. “There you are cutie! How was your day? Did you do all your chores?”

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Amidst your giggles you fight out a “Haha~ yes Master!”

“Well that’s great to hear, my little floof, because I got something that I think you’re really going to like.” Master sets you down before pulling down the blue plastic bag around its contents to reveal a moderately sized stark white box.

Before it’s even completely down, you spot a logo on the top right corner of the box: a stylized blue P overlaying something resembling a black S that’s all too familiar. Your heart jumps as you let out a gasp of interest.

“Is… is that what I think it is, Master?” you ask.

Master replies, “Oh yes indeed it is, Zeph. We’ve been together for how long? You don’t think I’ve been ignoring you staring at those commercials with curiosity do you, silly girl?”

Of course you don’t think that. But you can’t contain yourself and start doing a little tippy-tap dance on your hooves in excitement. “Oh, oh, oh please please please! Please can we try it please please please please please-” you begin to chant as you do your best to not slip on the tile floor as you pronk and shuffle around the room.

Master just chuckles at your antics before reminding you, “Remember Zephyr, Good Girls are patient. Let me get the thing opened up so I can read the instructions, then we’ll give it a try, okay?” He leans down and pats your head gently.

Remembering that you’re a Good Girl, you do agree that Good Girls are patient. You do your best to contain your excitement to practically chasing your tail, spinning in one spot instead of scampering around the room.

It still feels like Master takes his time carefully opening the PetSync kit’s packaging though, and even moreso as he pages through the Quick Instructions booklet. Eventually you wind down enough to plant your tush on the floor and just focus on watching Master read until he’s done.

You really weren’t paying attention to the time, but it feels like forever before Master closes the instructions and grabs the now-unboxed black latch-case, also having the PetSync logo worked into it. “Okay Zeph, I think I’m about ready. Go into the living room and lie down in the middle of the room, on the rug okay?”

You don’t even hesitate before you blurt out a “Yes Master!” and jump up, your hooves barely finding traction as you try to run to the living room as fast as you can. You dash towards the rug before deliberately rolling over your right shoulder, tumbling in such a way to let you lay down facing the other room as fast as possible.

Only a few seconds pass before Master follows your trail, setting the case and instructions down on the coffee table and taking a seat on the couch. You anxiously watch as he makes slow, deliberate movements to open up each latch on the case. He steals a glance at you, meeting eyes before smirking.

You just fume in your head, ['Oh why?! You’re doing this on purpose! Aaaaaaa!']

Finally Master gets the case open and pulls out what looks like two shiny metallic pens, one with a  blue end and a distinct “P” on it, the other black with a distinct “S”. Double checking a page in the instructions, he sets aside the “P” pen and picks up the “S” pen.

Master looks over the pen for a bit, clearly teasing you (or at least it feels like it) before he twists his torso around. He reaches over his left shoulder and presses the black “S” pen’s tip into his back, what you feel is concerningly close to his spine. You can hear a little click and Master grunts like he’d been jabbed.

Your focus on his teasing quickly is mixed with worry that you made Master hurt.

He holds the pen to his back for several seconds before letting up, twisting back around and setting the black pen back in the case. He speaks up saying, “Okay, Zeph, give me a minute to make sure it’s set up properly.” before lifting a small tablet out of the case. You sort of want a better look but you’re a Good Girl and know to stay laying on the rug. You still make out what looks like progress bars, numbers, and charts, though there’s no way you could really read it from the floor.

After a few minutes of watching and occasionally tapping the tablet, Master looks over to you. “Okay, your turn Zeph. Be a Good Girl and lie still for me okay? It’ll sting a little but then we can get started.”

At this point you’re practically vibrating in excitement, staying still on the floor. All you can do is nod and give an affirmative “Mmm hmm.”

Master stands up and kneels next to you with the blue “P” pen before brushing your mane to one side and feeling around your back and spine at the base of your neck. After touching around, he holds the pen against your back muscles near your spine before you feel something sharp jab into you from the pen. You’re a Good Girl though so you be as still as possible, even if it stings a little.

Before you know it, you can hear a small click and Master pulls the pen off your back.

“Alright Zeph, now wait a little bit.” he says, before going back to his spot on the couch and picking the tablet up again. You do your best to focus on being a Good Girl who says laying on the rug. It long ago stopped being comfortable though. Good Girls can handle it though.

Master looks up, satisfied, before asking ”Alright, it took. Are you ready Zeph?”

You’ve never been more anxious in your life, but you manage to nod.

“Okay, here goes.” He taps the pad again, though nothing seems to happen. You do glimpse more progress bars and stuff on the pad though.


After a minute, you feel a shiver go down your spine.

“Woah, that’s intense.”
“Woah, that’s intense.” You both say at the same time.

Master looks like he’s been slapped or something, and he fumbles forward trying to catch himself on the table. At the same time, you roll off your belly onto your side as you try to extend your forelegs asymmetrically and try to grab at the air.

“Oof that’s disorienting, hold still sweetie I’ll get the hang of this.”
“Oof that’s disorienting, hold still sweetie I’ll get the hang of this.” You once again echo at the same time, both of you speaking in stereo.

You’re not entirely sure what’s happening but Master doesn’t seem to be panicking at least.

You speak up from your floor spot laying on your side:

”Master what is it- oh gosh this thing doesn’t let up does it. Let me see, uh…”
“Oh gosh this thing doesn’t let up does it. Let me see, uh…” Master cuts you off as you echo his words again.

For a moment, he looks around for the instruction booklet as you glance around the room at the same time. All you can do is wonder what’s going on. He stops on a page, reads, then holds a stern look on his face for a moment as you scrunch up your muzzle in concentration. Then you feel your whole body relax.

“There, that should do it. Hey, there we go sweetie. You okay?” he asks. This time you don’t echo him.

“Master, what was that?” You ask as you roll off your side onto your belly again. You hadn’t been told to stop lying down and you knew you were a Good Girl.

“Wow, even now I still hear double. Oh WOW Zephyr, this is amazing. I can feel everything you’re feeling. See what you’re seeing. Uh, hearing myself talk is strange too. Do I really sound like that? Gosh, it’s like I’m you even.”

You don’t really follow, and can only mutter out “I, uh, I don’t get it, Master.”

“Amazing. Even now I heard that before you said it, even with the weird echo thing turned off. I think I know what happened though. I didn’t know how I was doing it, but basically everything I was doing was getting ‘pushed’ to you. That’s why we were copying each other, I just figured out how not to have things go to you from me.”

As he speaks, your tiny pony heart flutters and you start to get more excited than you’ve ever been. You go to ask what it feels like and get your mouth open before being interrupted-

“I don’t think I emphasized it enough earlier. I FEEL LIKE I’M YOU. Everything from the rug under your belly, to your breathing, to what you’re seeing.”

You’re happy that he knows you so well that he can guess your questions but that felt weirdly specific. You go to ask how he knew what you were going to ask and don’t even get your mouth open this time.

“Because that includes your thoughts. I’m feeling you think these thoughts and they’re going to me before you can even realize you’ve thought them.” Then he grins.

This time you open your mouth and say “Yeah, well my name is Zephyr and I didn’t pay attention to the whole advertisement or learn what the sciency terms actually meant! I really probably should have done more research but I’m a Good Girl and Good Girls don’t worry about that stuff.”

Not quite what you intended to say. You were going to ask what he means by “before you even thought them” but that admittedly everything you said was also a true statement.

Master can only go slightly slackjawed saying, “Oh sweet featherfluff, you don’t even realize what’s happening. In fact I’m not sure you can until I play around a bit...”

Confused, you ask “So, uh, may I get up now? This carpet is getting itchy.”

Master quickly replies “Oh believe me I know. And-”

“-you indeed may stand up now.” you finish seamlessly.

You think, ['Well that’s a relief,'] and continue to lay there, not moving an inch. Now that you’re free to move, and you want to, you can’t really bring yourself to do it though. This spot is getting itchy but also moving kinda seems like effort you can’t be bothered with.

You continue to sit there for a minute, thinking about how you kinda wanna get up and even have permission but just can’t seem to decide to actually do it.

Master chuckles, “Okay I think that’s enough fun on my part and it really is getting itchy. Here, let me try...”

You’re glad that master is having fun too, though you’re not entirely sure what he’s talking about still. You clumsily try bracing your legs under you, but maybe you were just laying on them wrong because they feel all wobbly, like you forgot how to stand up for a moment. You eventually get into a wide standing stance, just to be sure your wobbly legs don’t give out.

“Okay, with that ordeal out of the way let me see if I can convey this to you well enough. Make yourself comfortable, please.”

You jump up onto your spot on the couch where your indent is well worn in from many afternoons of snuggling in front of the TV and wedge yourself into your comfy position.

“Okay, so I told you that I heard your thoughts before you’ve thought them, right? What do you think that means?”

You’re honestly not sure how that works. ['Wouldn’t you have to have a thought before anything could happen to it?'] you ponder in your head.

“Alright, so it’s not quite that you’re doing and thinking things and I’m getting a copy of what you feel. Everything your brain does, everything, is getting routed through mine first before it goes anywhere in your cute little noodle.” he lovingly ruffles your mane just the way he knows you love.

“So every time your thinky bits try to process anything, that information goes through me first before being routed back to you and disseminated as normal. I’m not just viewing the experience that is being the little Z you know I love, I’ve practically got veto power on the entirety of you.”

He fixes gazes with you, and you’re rapt with attention as Master speaks.

He continues, “Every movement you try to make only happens because I didn’t stop it-” you ruffle your wings uncertainly

“- Every sentence you try to speak only happens-”
You seamlessly finish his sentence “- because I allow it,”

“and every thought that you think only happens because, in any way that matters...”

Crystal clear in your own internal monologue’s voice, you think ['because I thought it. And speaking of thinking, let’s do some of that.']

You can almost physically feel it, like a ball being dropped as you firmly grasp what master has been doing, has been telling, has been dictating to your mind.

You can see it so clearly now; he’s jacked so far into the process of what it means to even be conscious that for any reasonable definition of the term he is you. Literally nothing that happens as part of being Zephyr the loved and loving pet isn’t something that Master doesn’t feel first and then dictate how the wetware that is Zephyr responds to it: either as if he wasn’t there and you act normally, or however Master deemed fit for Zephyr to respond.

Master speaks up and asks, “Zeph, sweetheart, do you remember when we first met? Rhetorically, because of course I know you do, now more than ever. What do you say we remember that some?”

Of course you remember, how could you not? You could never forget how tightly Master hugged you and how tightly you hugged him and how excited you were and how it felt like you were the silliest little pony, so exuberant to be going home with someone. Honestly it’s pretty contagious and you have an urge to hug Master right now.

You speak up, “Oh my, I knew you were so happy, but to feel it from your perspective is honestly something else.” You stand up with zero trouble, crouch down and give your wings a hefty flap, leaping off the couch towards Master who seamlessly catches you as if he was expecting it.

Master hugs you tightly and whispers to you, “Oh my sweet, sweet Zephyr, you’re not a good girl-”

“You’re the best girl.”
“You’re the best girl.” You echo at the exact same time.

You open your mouth to say, “And thinking around in that little noggin of yours, I can tell just how perfect this is for you. Oh man it’s too fun talking with your voice, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.

Master is right of course. You don’t think you’ll ever get tired of it either.