Sweetie Belle trotted into the front room and shook her head with a frown.

"Something wrong, kiddo?" her mom asked.

"Yes! Sweetie shouted. "Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and me were playing and getting our cutie marks, and I... I stopped remembering things. I just left, I don't even remember what they were doing or saying."

"Did ya bop yer head?"

"What? No!" Sweetie Belle shook her head and groaned. "Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and me were playing and getting our cutie marks, and I just stopped remembering things. I'm not sure what happened. The last thing I remember is Apple Bloom looking at me like I was an idiot."

"Oh my, this may be serious... Let me call your nurse." Ribbon Wishes picked up a phone and dialed out.

Soon a receptionist answered and directed her call. "Hello, Wakeman Tech Support. What's troubling you today?"

"Sweetie Belle isn't able to remember things, or she remembers only a few small things at a time. What should I do?"

"Sounds like she's capped her short term memory card. That's supposed to be impossible since she's programmed to dump older short term memories after they become irrelevant. Go ahead and power her down, then manually wipe the card. That'll fix the problem for now, and we'll run remote diagnostics in the mean time."

Ribbon Wishes crossed her eyes and scratched her head. "Alright, Hun. I have no idea what you just said to me. Can you send somepony over to help?"

"Some... pony? Oh... Oh! That's right, you're in Equestria. I'm afraid we don't have any nearby technicians, so it'll be approximately a three day wait, but hopefully much sooner. I'll post the beacon now if you'd like."

Ribbon glanced down at her daughter, who pounded on her head with her hooves. "Yes, please."

"Thank you for your call, and help is on the way." The service woman hung up, and Ribbon Wishes sighed.

"Somepony is on their way to help you, sweetheart. I'm sorry I can't do it myself." She kneeled down and hugged her frustrated daughter.

"I can't remember what I was doing..."

"I know. Just be patient."

A teenage robot flipped through a magazine and giggled at the pictures of male models advertising sexy clothing. She kicked her feet up and down while she skimmed, then her bedroom door slid open.

"Jenny, would you like to take a trip with me?" Wakeman asked.

"Mom! It's called knocking, hello!" Jenny shouted as she tucked her magazine away with a blue hue of blush glowing on her polished metal cheeks.

"Oh, yes dear. I apologize. Now come with me." Wakeman gestured towards the door and walked out.

Jenny rolled her eyes and followed her downstairs. "So where are we going?"

"There's someone I think you'd like to meet. I didn't mention it to you before because I wasn't sure if this would work properly, but it was a success and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."

Jenny's eyes widened and she scrunched her cheeks. "Is it another robot? A cute teenage robot?"

"Yes. Well, no. It is a robot, but she's not a teenager. She's a young female horse with the mind of a ten-year-old," Wakeman explained as they climbed into her car.

Jenny sighed and drooped her pigtails. "Oh... Great."

"Oh don't give me that, you. I think you two will hit it off. Plus, I've never built a pony before, and this one is extra cute if I don't say so myself." Wakeman tilted her nose up and pressed a button that caused her car tires to lay flat and launch them into the air with rocket propulsion.

"So she's extra cute? Can I keep her?" Jenny asked.

"She's one of a kind just like you, XJ9. Her name is SW3-B, and you two have more in common than you might think." Wakeman slid on a smug smile pressed on the throttle.

Jenny groaned and rested her cheek on her fist. "My name is Jenny, and I bet her name isn't really SW3-B..."

"Ohhoho heh..." Wakeman laughed. "You'll see when we get there. I'm interested to see how she's doing."

Sweetie Belle pressed her forehead against the floor and scooted herself around upside down until she crashed into a wall. "Where am I?!"

"Calm down, Sweetie. Help will be here in a couple of days," Ribbon Wishes said while flipping through Sweetie's instruction manual.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Ribbon dropped the book and pulled it open, and her eyes widened at the sight of the familiar old woman. "Oh my, so nice to see you again, Nora."

"Yes, and you as well. I'd like you to meet my, my daughter, Jenny," Wakeman said as the six and a half foot tall android stepped into the home.

Sweetie Belle covered her mouth and shrieked, "Robot!" She then darted into her bedroom.

Jenny grumbled while Doctor Wakeman chucked. "So I see you haven't told her yet... I'm here because I saw the beacon and wanted to check in personally. SW3-B is a very special project to me."

"Oh yes, the beacon. Well you see, she can't rem—"

"Remember anything new. I'm well aware. I just want you to know that this is a result of her never rebooting, and I now need to perform a manual update by wiping her cached short term memories. The problem is that in order for this update to function properly, SW3-B will remember it. If she isn't aware of her anatomy, then that might be a temporary problem. I'll give you a moment to prepare how to tell her, but we need to perform this update as soon as possible to ensure no permanent damage to her STM Card," Wakeman explained.

"Oh... I see. I understand."

Jenny frowned and took a step back. "That little pony was a robot?"

Wakeman nodded. "Yes. That Exo-Skin is quite remarkable. Fur is so much easier than bare skin, admittedly. SW3-B, please come out here!" she called out.

Ribbon Wishes frowned and cleared her throat. "Sweetie Belle, we need to talk to you. This robot is friendly, so don't worry."

Sweetie Belle peeked through her bedroom door, then slowly stepped out. She stepped into the front room and locked eyes with Jenny, who smiled and waved. Sweetie squeaked and hugged her mother's leg. "Robot!"

Wakeman wiped a tear from her wide, watery eyes. "She's operating perfectly. This is my cutest work to date."

Jenny raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip. "She's pretty cute, sure..."

Wakeman walked over to the little filly droid and scratched behind her warm ears, then reached behind her neck and deactivated her. Sweetie's eyes widened and she went stiff. "Alright, now allow me to take care of this while you prepare your talk. Sweetie Belle, as you've named her, may be a robot, but her mind is as delicate and pure as that of a child. I trust you will be optimal patents and help her through this."

Ribbon Wishes wiped her teary eyes and turned away as Wakeman lifted a hatch on the side of her head to slide out a series of memory drives. "Let me know when you're done."

The doctor nodded as she used her precision tools to pluck a small black chip from its slot, then plugged it into her pocket reader. Billions of memory files were displayed through hundreds of thousands of subfolders, and Wakeman felt herself sink into the warmth and love that were apparent in the file names about her parents, her sister, and her best friends. A thought to secretly peek into Jenny's memories crossed her mind.

She then sorted the files into dormant and repressed status. Everyday events flooded the dormant category, while her angry sister and classmate bullies filled the other. She wiped the dormant ones and replaced the card into Sweetie's head, then latched it shut. "There we go. Now to update her process execution functions so that this won't happen again."

"Did you do this to me?" asked Jenny.

"I haven't had to. I'm not sure what went wrong here, but it should be fixed now. For some reason her memories that should have been temporary files were being permanently stored. For instance, she specifically remembered how she's opened her bedroom door every day for the past three years, or since activation. Intriguing." Wakeman closed a separate hatch after modifying her programming, then pressed the hidden button behind her neck again.

Sweetie Belle blinked several times and wiped her eyes as a series of numbers and symbols crowded her vision. "What did you do to me?"

"Just relax, that coding will be gone in a few moments," Wakeman explained.

Jenny crossed her arms and watched the little robot stumbling around, then a deathly shriek caught her attention. She opened the front door and spotted five large timberwolves surrounding a pink pony with a yellow mane, who fainted.

"Hold on!" Jenny shouted as she flew into action. As one wolf pounced towards the mare, Jenny uppercutted it, which sent its head flying, and rest of its body fell into shambles.

The pink mare regained consciousness and scurried away through the opening. The four remaining wolves then surrounded Jenny, who lowered her stance and grinned. "Bring it, you mossy mongrels."

The timberwolves glanced to each other, then snarled as they prowled towards her. One leaped forward and Jenny's hand became a timber saw, which sliced the creature down the center with ease. The next attack was met with a rocket propelled roundhouse kick that shattered the wolf into pieces. The final wolf backed away and bared its sharp, wooden teeth.

It stood among the remains of its fallen friends, which glowed green as they assembled around him. Each part attached to the remaining wolf to increase his size dramatically, then it delivered an earthshaking roar.

Jenny fell backwards beneath the boom of sound, them flew into the air. "You know what they say, right?" Her fists became giant hooks which she stabbed into its chest. "The bigger they are..."

She activated her rocket thrusters and slowly lifted the creature off the ground, which whimpered and flailed its legs. "What, scared of heights?" she asked as they soared higher.

Jenny then began spinning, swinging the huge beast around and around before she released the hooks and flung it into the side of a cliff hanging over the Everfree Forest. Her arms regrew from their sockets and she brushed her hands off with a smug smirk. "...the harder they fall."

Jenny landed back in the center of Ponyville to be swarmed by a crowd of cheering ponies.

"Thank you so much, great hero!" they called out.

Jenny gracefully bowed and accepted her due praise. Sweetie Belle rushed to her side and looked up with wide, glistening eyes.

"You're amazing! I want to know how to do all the things you just did so I can be an awesome superhero too!" Sweetie Belle shouted while she hopped around her new idol.

Jenny blushed and knelt down. "I'm not sure if you're the right kind of robot. What sorts of powers do you have?"

Sweetie Belle shrugged and inspected herself. "Uhm... hmm..." she mumbled as she lifted the bottom of her hoof. "I don't know..."

Doctor Wakeman stood behind her and placed a hand to her chin. "If it's okay with your parents, I could make a few physical upgrades to you so that you could help protect this town from such monsters in the future."

The town mayor chimed in. "A crime-fighting superpowered robot will be a great addition to the town! Not to mention the boom to tourism. I can see it now, Sweetie Bot, the Superhero of Ponyvi... Oh, and of course keeping the citizens safe is my number one priority."

Wakeman winked and rubbed the filly's soft mane, then glanced to her parents who watched with worried frowns. "Of course, the final decision is yours."

"Please, please, pleeeeease!" Sweetie Belle cried and hopped in circles. "I wanna be a robot like... like her!"

Jenny leaned down and frowned. "Are you sure, Sweetie Belle? I used to want to be a robot just like you; a robot that blended in and was treated like a normal person. If you were like me, your friends might treat you differently."

Sweetie Belle looked back at her parents, then nodded. "Yes, I definitely want to. What if you weren't here? I want to be able to protect the town in case something bad happens and I'm the only one here ponies can depend on."

"Mhm, an admirable point of view, Sweetie Belle," Wakeman noted.

Ribbon Wishes sighed and hugged her husband. "If it's what you want, then it's fine by me, Hun. I don't have the bits to pay for this yet, though."

"Oh don't worry about that. It'll be my pleasure. Free of charge." Wakeman tilted her head and examined Sweetie Belle. "Mayor, how fierce are the monsters that inhabit the area?"

"Quite fierce! I've seen everything from a giant three-headed monster dog to a ferocious rampaging hydra in my day. I'm still worried about the dragons that dwell in caves around here as well, who knows when they'll try and destroy the town?" Mayor Mare explained.

Wakeman nodded and tapped the filly. "I see. She'll need new Exo-Armor and a series of defensive installations. I hope you don't mind that she may not simulate an organic filly quite as much. She'll still be the same Sweetie Belle inside, but she will be a new girl on the outside."

Ribbon Wishes nodded. "Knowing my little girl, she'll never forgive me if I don't let her do this, so... I'm grateful for the three years I've had with her, and I'm looking forward to the rest of our lives with her no matter how she might change. I love ya, kiddo."

Wakeman clicked her car keys which called the vehicle over, then she climbed in. "I'll get started immediately. In two weeks, you'll have your daughter back."

Sweetie Belle turned back to face her parents. "Tell Scootaloo and Apple Bloom that I'll miss them. I can't wait to tell them that I'm actually a robot!"

Jenny climbed into the front seat and looked out the window at all the friendly faces waving her off. Sweetie Belle jumped into the backseat and waved back at them. Jenny sighed and shook her head. I hope you know what you're doing, Sweetie Belle...