A week had passed since I had shown Buttercup to Joseph. A week of planning, trying to figure out exactly what to say to Doctor Hassan. Why was I so nervous? I'm just quitting. I can't think about Buttercup, or the fact that I'm technically stealing her. It's just a simple resignation.

A resignation from a company that trusted me. It was almost impossible for me to not feel guilty for this. All those other pony bots… What facets of Buttercups intelligence was in their brains? They might not have emotions or complex thought patterns like Buttercup does, but there has to be some level of individual thought in there.

No, you can't think about it like that. Those ponies aren't programmed to have emotions, just to emulate basic ones. The choice to give Buttercup the ability to feel pain was an incredibly hard one, but when I had set out to improve her, I needed to give her the “human” experience. That meant pain, both emotional and physical. '

“Wh-what is this?” Buttercup said, holding up her hoof. She had banged it hard against the chair leg accidentally and had run to me crying.

“What’s wrong?" I said, leaning down and lifting her onto my lap.

“I-I hit my h-hoof on the chair and now it… Feels bad! I don't understand!"

“Oh, Buttercup… I'm so sorry. What you're feeling is called pain. I know it's not good to feel pain, but it's there so you can tell that you've damaged yourself. It's part of being alive.”

“I-I don't like it! Take it away!” She shouted, burying her face into my belly.

“I-I’m sorry, Butter. I want you to be as close to a living animal as possible, and I know that's what you want too. Pain is an unavoidable part of life. But that's what I'm here for. To help make the pain easier to deal with.” I said, carefully lifting up her hoof in my hand.

“Wh-What are you d-doing?” Butters asked with a tinge of fear in her voice.

“This." I whispered, lifting her hoof closer to my mouth before I planted a gentle kiss on the place she had banged it. I lowered it and brought her into a soft hug, which she quickly returned.

“Did that help?”

“A b-bit… It felt nice, which I guess distracted me from the pain.”

“I'm glad. I'm so glad I made you, Butter. Knowing you and the wonderful mare you've become has been the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

I shook my head, dispelling the memory. It was a nice memory, but I really didn't want to think too much about Buttercup right now. I needed to focus on what I was about to do.

I raised my hand up and rapped lightly on Doctor Hassan’s door.

There was a pregnant silence before I heard the muffled words "come in.”.

I opened the door slowly and walked into Hassan’s office. Hassan was definitely one for extravagancy. I always felt a little weirded out by the amount of ridiculously expensive looking decor that was scattered around his office. There was a traditional looking African mask on the wall, flanked by what looked like antique weaponry. There was an extremely expensive and modern looking desk in the center of the room, seated at which was Doctor Hassan.

“Ah, Patricia Wells. How are you this afternoon? I assume you've come to deliver an update on the PonyBots?”

“M-Morning-- I mean, Afternoon, Doctor Hassan. I'm fine, and yes, I've come to update you on the bots.” I said, my mind still trying to keep itself calm under Hassan’s judging gaze.

As I'd mentioned before, Hassan was first and foremost a businessman. Sure, he was a smart businessman, and had a doctorate in engineering, but he was also quite cold. Money came first in his mind, no matter the situation.

“Why don't you take a seat?" Hassan said calmly, motioning toward the seat in front of his desk. I'd sat in that seat before, and I could swear he had bought a small one so he could look down on those who came in here.

I reluctantly sat down, twiddling my thumbs nervously.

“So, how are my PonyBots going?” Hassan asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“Um, they're going well. Very well. I'd say they're ready for manufacturing by now.” I said, with only the slightest hint of pride in my voice.

“Ah, perfect! Very well done, Doctor Wells! I knew I made the right decision in hiring you.” He said with a wide grin.

“Thanks, Doctor. I've spent the last month and a bit working out kinks in the software and working with the engineers on improving the PonyBots functionality. I'm sure in future iterations, it will increase in quality even more.” I offered a fake smile, failing to mention that all of these improvements had been applied to my secret project, and then some.

Joe had even been so nice as to assist me on giving Buttercup fur, something all three of us, Buttercup, Joe, and myself had been excited for. Of course, the regular PonyBots had been getting this treatment as well, but they most definitely didn't appreciate it as much as Butter.

“Excellent work, Wells. I trust you can supervise those further iterations as successfully as you have done so far.”

“Um… That's kind of the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I've also come to hand in my two weeks notice for my resignation.”

“Oh." He frowned, an unreadable expression crossing his face. “May I ask the reason why? You've been an incredible asset to TechPrime and we'd truly be sad to see you go.”

More like sad to see the dollars I earn you drop.

“I've just been feeling like a change in direction. Robots have always been a personal joy of mine, and working for TechPrime has been an incredible experience for me, but I've always wanted to get into games programming, and I've finally decided to depart from robotics for the time being.” This of course, being a lie. I'd been interested in games programming as a kid, but my heart still laid with robotics. Any question that Hassan had for me, I had a believable excuse to back me up.

“Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, but I guess I'm glad you've found your… True calling.” He said with mock sadness and leant back in his seat. “You'll receive a quite generous payout for your work so far, and if you do intend to ever return to TechPrime, there will be a position as well as a raise waiting for you.”

I held back a mental gag at his offer. He knew how much I was worth to him. I tried to stay humble to myself, but even I could admit I was smart. Hassan just didn't realize I was smart enough to see through his guise of friendliness as well.

“Thank you for your offer, Doctor Hassan, and thank you for the opportunity to work for your company so far.” I stood up and handed him an envelope containing a letter detailing my resignation. Hassan also stood up and held a hand out which I reluctantly shook.

“Thank you for your work, Doctor Wells, and I hope to be seeing you work for us again in the future.”

I forced yet another smile onto my lips before releasing the handshake and turning around to leave. As I shut the door behind me, I let out a massive sigh of relief. Hassan was a smart man, but unlike me, he was completely inept at reading emotion. I walked away from his office, confidence in my stride.

“You did it. I can't believe you actually did it." Joe laughed, bringing his glass of beer up to his mouth, sipping it slowly.

“Yeah.” I said, leaning back on the couch and sipping my own drink. "Holy shit, I actually fucking did it.” I laughed.

“Proud of you, Peppermint Patty. I'm sure that Buttercup was proud of you too.”

“Haven't told her yet. The meeting really took it out of me. Most people don't understand just how intimidating that dude can be until you sit in that office with him. I'm gonna recover a bit and tell Buttercup the good news tomorrow.”

“You got that right. Hassan is one scary guy.” Joe pursed his lips before taking another drink.

“I'm so glad Buttercup is never going to meet him. I mean, I'm sure she'll meet her fair share of assholes, especially if I find a way to introduce her to the rest of humanity eventually, but Hassan is a special kind of asshole. The one that views you as nothing but numbers next to a dollar sign. I can't imagine how high that number would be if he ever met Butter.”

“Gosh, I don't even wanna think about it. I'm sorry I suggested selling Butter before, I didn't realize at the time just how human she really was.”

“Nah, it's fine. Trust me, there'd be plenty of people who’d still want to sell her after seeing just how human she really is.”

“I'm glad you trusted me with her.” Joe said, smiling softly at me.

“I'm glad I did too, for more than just the reason that she needs more than one person to talk to.”

“I'm surprised she likes me at all. I'm not exactly the most interesting dude on the planet.”

“You don't have to be the most interesting, ya doofus. You're just you, and Butter likes you for you. Same as me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Joe smirked, placing his empty beer glass on the table and opening up another bottle before pouring it in.

“Speaking of how you're a super cool friend and such… I kinda have another favor to ask of you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I kinda need help smuggling Butter out of that prison. I've got two weeks to clear my workshop of any evidence she was ever there, and it'll probably be easier to do so without her being there.”

“Sure, no problem. Well, I'll help, no problem, but getting her out of there might be a problem. Have you got any plans?”

“I got a few. One of them is to sneak her out in a bag of some type, but that's gonna raise suspicion. I've contemplated shipping her out with the first batch of PonyBots, but that's way too dangerous. There's no way I'd forgive myself if she got lost. The third option is to carry her out and pretend that all is natural. I'll just say to security that she's part of my work that I'm bringing home, but that might be just as risky as the other idea. Plus, I'd have to shut her down to do that, and I'd rather avoid that if at all possible.”

“What about the couch?”

“Huh? What about it?”

“Well, how did you get it in?”

“Uh, I just filled a request with my supervisor and he let me take it in.”

“Well, now that you're quitting, it'd make sense that you're taking your possessions home. So all we need to do is cut a pony sized hole under one of the cushions and hide her in there, then we just walk straight out the door.”

“Hmmm… And what about the metal detector?”

“I guess we say there's springs in the cushions.”

“Gosh damn, you're a lot smarter than you let on, Joe.”

“Hey, I resent that.” He joked, finishing off his second beer. “So, you happy with that plan?"

“Yeah, it really does seem like the best option we could have. How does tomorrow sound?”

“You got it, Patty.”

“Patty, do I really have to?” Buttercup complained as she paced in front of the couch. Joe had already carefully cut a hole in the bottom of the couch, but Butter's nerves were really getting to her.

“I know, I'm sorry, but if I'm ever going to get you out of here, we’re gonna need to hide you. I'm not risking any of our other options. I'm not risking losing you.” I knelt down, placing my hands on her cheeks brushing them against her new fur in an effort to calm her down. "Trust me, I'm not going to let any harm come to you again.”

“I d-don’t know, are you s-sure there's no other way?”

“None that aren't more dangerous than this.” I said and pulled her into a hug. If nothing else would calm her down, then this would. Her breathing slowed and she leant into my hug, sighing as she calmed herself.

“O-Okay.” She said, apprehensively pulling away from the hug and stepping toward the couch.

I followed her over to it and picked her up as we arrived at her temporary vessel. She let out a small yelp as I picked her up, but a small kiss to her cheek calmed her down again and I slowly lowered her into the gash that Joe had made in the couch.

“Everything will be okay, Buttercup. I'll never let any harm come to you.” I smiled warmly at her, holding her hoof firmly.

“I… I trust you Patty.”

“You ready?” Joe asked, the tape he was going to use to seal the hole at the ready. Butter nodded shakily and curled up as tightly as she could. Joe closed the gap that had been made under the couch’s cushions and sealed it with a few strips of tape before placing the cushion back on the top of it.

“Okay, so just to recap, we just go through security, straight out to the parking lot, and put the couch in the back of my van, right?" Joe asked as we prepared to lift the couch.

“Yep. That's the plan.”

“Alright. No time like the present. Let's get this pony home.”

We heaved as we lifted up the couch slowly and walked with it toward the back room door. Luckily, the couch was relatively light and crappy on it's own, and Buttercup herself didn't add too much weight to it, so we didn't have to strain too much to lift it through my workshop and out into the hall.

My heart was racing by now as colleagues, or I guess former colleagues now, passed me by. I avoided their glances, pretending to just be struggling with the weight of the couch. Good thing for me that I looked a lot weaker than I actually was.

Eventually, we reached the labs foyer and made our way to the security checkpoint. I had informed the security guard on duty that we would be coming through here with a couch earlier in the day, and to my massive relief, the same guard was on duty now.

“Evening, Patty. I see this is the couch you were talking about?" The guard said, still sitting in his chair by the metal detector.

“Y-Yep!” I masked my nervousness with strain as I lifted it closer towards the checkpoint. “Sorry if it sets off the detector, it's f-filled with metal springs.”

“No problem Patty, head on through.”

Enormous relief washed over me at those words and we took the couch through the metal detector. As expected, the gate beeped loudly as we walked through, but we continued walking and the guard went back to his magazine and coffee.

I let out a silent woop of joy in my head, my heart racing like crazy from the excitement that I was trying to hide. I looked over to Joe at the other side of the couch who smiled widely back at me.

The automatic doors to the foyer opened as we stepped into the sensor's range and we stepped out into the late afternoons breeze. As fast as we could without raising suspicion, we hefted the couch toward Joe's van and laid the couch down. Joe calmly opened up the back before we lifted the couch up and into the back of the van and closed the door behind us.

My heart was still beating incredibly fast as we walked to the front of the van and got in.

“Holy shit. Holy shit!" I shouted, the joy overcoming me and I hopped up and down in my seat. ”We fucking did it!”

“Y-Yeah.” Joe said, a smile slowly creeping onto his face.

“Um, can I get out of here now?” A muffled call came from Butter behind me and I jumped up from my seat, crawling into the back of the car and pulling the cushion off. I hastily ripped the tape off the gap, and just as I did, Buttercup jumped out and wrapped her hooves around my neck.

“I'm so sorry, Butter. I'm sorry you had to go through that.” I said, tears threatening to burst from my eyes as I hugged that beautiful mare as tightly as I could.

“I-It’s okay. I'm f-fine, it was just a little scary.” Buttercup said unconvincingly as she continued to hug me.

“I really don't mean to break up such a sweet moment, but we really need to get out of here as fast as possible.” Joe said from the front seat. I pulled away from the hug and smiled down at a nervous looking Butter.

“It's okay Butter. We're free of that place, and if I have anything to say about it, we're never going back.”