Rugia

Upon arriving at the castle, Rugia got the same reaction like in ponyville. Every pony looked at him with a state of shock. Of course he didn’t care, if he wasn’t married to a vixen he would probably think the same about them. At the castle doors they were greeted by Princess Celestia, who had met Rugia through a holo-message when his messenger robot came crashing through her bedroom window and landed in the fire place. Rugia greeted her with a smile and said it was better to talk in person than through a flaming, screaming robot. Princess Celestia led Rugia and Candace to the ball room where a number of guests had already arrived to welcome Rugia and his wife to Equestria. Rugia took a seat on a couch with his wife and placed a duffle bag next to him on the floor. Sitting on the couch across from them was Princess Luna who greeted them as Celestia took a seat next to her. Shortly after this; Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy had arrived and took there places around the sofas to be part of the discussion.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask you earlier,” Celestia kicked of the conversation, “but what species are you?”

“My race calls ourselves humans,” Replied Rugia who reached over the back of the couch and snatched a glass of tea off the waiter’s tray behind him, “of course if I was talking about me the term would be human.”

“What are humans like?” asked a curious Twilight.

Rugia took a sip of tea and replied, “My race isn’t much to brag about. Most of my race are kind and understanding, but others are a bunch of selfish monsters who care only for themselves and hate each other. My race kill each other every day, mostly out of anger, hatred, a sad child hood.” He paused to sip more tea and continued. “Of course there are those like me who try to solve the world’s problems and make life easier. But it’s fruitless to try to help because no matter how much I’ve tried to help things just keep getting worse. So here I am trying to have a better life, and I think its going to work out.”

“But humans can’t be that bad can they?” asked Fluttershy.

“Your opinion would change if you lived on my home planet for a while.” Rugia replied straightening his tie.

“Well, what else do humans do?” asked Twilight.

“Well other than starting wars and killing each other,” Rugia said with an expression of boredom, “my race will read books like yourselves, they have jobs to support their families. They also like to engage in sports.” Rainbow heard the word “sports” and was immediately wanting to know more.

“What kind of sports are we taking about here?” Rainbow asked with and excited expression.
“Oh good, you’re still breathing,” Rugia sat up straight, “I though you died over there. Humans engage in sports like baseball; a sport with four white, square pads and the players hit a ball with a stick called a bat. They run the four bases to score, and they also have a person called an umpire who can be a complete moron and make the wrong calls. Another sport we have is soccer; a sport where players try to kick a ball into a goal net to score. There is also football where the players try to run across a large field to score and tackle each other to get the ball. There are a lot of sports but my favorite is the one called hockey; in this game the players try to hit a round disk into a goal net much like soccer to score. Of course my favorite part is where the fans and players get angry and beat the stuffing out of each other because of a bad call.” The comment on hockey made the group laugh. Rainbow began to warm up to Rugia, but still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was hiding something. But she decided to try to get to know him better, not to say she would forget her suspicions.

“So Rugia,” Rainbow began, “what do you do? You know hobbies and stuff.”

“Well, when I’m not paying attention to my wife,” Rugia emptied the last of his tea, “I spend my time reading books or walking. But my most favorite hobby I have is inventing gadgets, gizmos, and all sorts of machinery.”

“We would be most grateful if thow were to show us sometime.” Luna said with a sound of interest.

Rugia began unzipping his duffle bag, “Well I happened to have brought a few gadgets-” just then a three foot tall robot with an oval shaped head, alien-green-like eyes, thin arms and torso, with four spider like legs jumped out of the bag and screamed, “TA DA!” Everyone nearly fell over from being startled by the small creature.

“R-17 what did I tell you about hiding in my bag so you could travel!?” Rugia scolded.

“Sorry daddy,” The silver robot replied, “I just wanted to see the ponies and their many colors… So many colors!”

“Oh well,” Rugia said snatching another glass of tea, “I guess since we’re playing show and tell I can talk about you.”

“YAAAAAAAY!” R-17 exclaimed as he began running circles around Twilight and her friends singing, “Ponies, ponies, I love the ponies, ponies yeah!”

“Woooooo.” R-17 stopped running when he noticed Princess Celestia and walked over to her. “Big pretty pony.” he said leaping on to the couch and stood between Celestia and Luna. R-17 began observing Celestia and tilted his head to his left. “Shiny.” he said pointing at the neck bracelet on Celestia.

“So you made this adorable creature Rugia?” She said turning to Rugia.

“Yes I buil-”

“Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty,” R-17 had started petting Celestia’s mane, “Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty…. Pretty….”

“R-17 what have I told you about touching other beings?” Rugia looked at R-17 with frustration.

“Don’t touch other beings unless asked permission or for scientific research.” R-17 said tapping his index fingers together.

“Is Celestia scientific research?” Rugia raised an eye brow.

R-17 paused for a few moments and replied, “Yes”, and started petting Celestia’s mane again.

“Stop that!” Rugia commanded.

“I like the colors!” R-17 exclaimed as he leaped to the couch and sat next to Rugia.

“I’m very sorry about that Princess,” Rugia said, “He gets excited when meeting new faces. He’s extremely obsessed with bright colors.”

It’s quite alright,” Princess Celestia said motioning for a tray of tea to be brought over for the rest of them. “So tell us about him. What is he?”

“R-17 is a sentry robot I had designed to protect my lab from intruders.” Rugia began, “However he would get to excited and attack my family members when they would come into my lab. So he pretty much helps me with research and development. He makes good company and likes to play mostly. He also acts like a child, mostly because he has the personality of one.”

“What is a sentry robot?” asked Twilight observing R-17.

Rugia pat R-17 on the head and said, “A sentry robot is a mechanical creature with weapons that it can use to defend itself and others. They'ere like hunters really. I’ve built five other sentries two months ago before I came here. I call them the SCS series.”

“What does SCS stand fer’?” asked Apple Jack.

“The initials SCS stands for “security sentry”, and believe me, you do not want to meet the SCS series.” Rugia said.

“Why not?” asked Celestia.

“They were not meant to be programmed the way they are.” Rugia had a look of dread in his eyes. “But when I designed them they got a very aggressive personality. Needless to say the SCS’s will kill anything that enters the restricted section of the lab that isn’t part of the household.”

They looked at Rugia with worry. Twilight asked with a frightened voice, “Are they back on your world?”

“No,” Rugia shook his head, “I couldn’t leave them on Earth because of how dangerous they are. Also I had to bring them with me so they could provide extra protection. They also hate being left alone for a long time away from me because they fear for my safety.”

“Are they watching us right now?” Asked Rarity.

“No they’re back at ponyville guarding the house.” replied Rugia.

“They don’t get out.. of the house… do they?” asked a scared Fluttershy.

“Don’t worry, they won’t leave the house unless I tell them too.” assured Rugia. “You are safe from the SCS series as long as you stay away from them.”

Celestia was worried, Rugia assured them that the SCS’s would not attack as long as they were left alone but still worried for the safety of her subjects. “Why do you need such dangerous creatures to guard your household?” asked the Princess with firm words.

Rugia looked at her and replied, “The technology I build could cause mass destruction in the wrong hands. So I need the SCS series for encase there is an intruder while I’m not home. There is no reason to worry, the security sentries will only attack when they feel threatened.”

No one spoke for a while. The thought of a possibility of an SCS getting loose in Ponyville was still on their minds. All that happened for the next five minutes was the sound of guests in the background. Rugia started wishing he hadn’t said anything about the sentries but he had to talk about them or safety would be an issue. Rugia couldn’t take the silence and grabbed a throw pillow and walked off with it. As soon as he walked away he came sliding back across the floor on the pillow sitting like a genie. They watched him come back across the room again.

“What are you doing?” asked Celestia with an eyebrow raised.

As Rugia came sliding back across the floor he said, “Sometimes in order to get your mind off of the bad, you have to do something weird for a laugh.” He came sliding back again, “Grab a pillow Princess its really fun.” As Rugia disappeared to the far side of the room, Celestia hesitated, but soon levitated a pillow to the floor and sat on it, not sure if it was a good idea or not.
“You know it helps to push off something to get moving.” Rugia said as he came to a slow stop next to her.

“I don’t know.” she said.

Rugia stood up and walked around behind her. “Pardon me your highness.” Rugia said as he gave Celestia a hefty shove and she slid a good distance across the room on the pillow. When she came to a stop she stood up with a smile and said, “That was… fun!”

Celestia sat on the pillow again and came sliding back across the room giggling. Soon, Twilight and the others joined in. They did this for thirty minutes before Rugia went spinning across the room and crashed into a table, nearly destroying a vase. But his fast reflexes allowed him to catch it before it hit the floor. He put it back in its place and came walking back to the others and said it was time do something else. Rugia remembered that he gave R-17 the ability to play music.

“Hey let’s dance I’ll have R-17 play for us.” Rugia led them to the dance floor. “Ok R-17, track seven please.”

(Please play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfzfsUnQHw&list=FLJyUmLqjzlwz6KNFPBfvfWQ&index=19&feature=plpp_video; before continuing. Unless you don’t want to.)

When the music started, Rugia slid to the center of the floor then to his right then to his left. He began motioning for ponies to join him on the dance floor. None of them were sure how to react to the situation. Rugia continued side stepping left and right on the floor. When the music kicked into high tempo he really started grooving with it. He would spin around and walked backwards sliding his feet on the floor. The crowd watching soon began to tap their hooves. They didn’t typically play music like this at the castle, but it was a nice change. Rugia slid to Luna and began encouraging her to dance all the while dancing himself. She hesitated but started swaying with the beat and the rest of them followed after her. R-17, while playing the music got down with the beat and would spin his head a time or two. Soon the whole room was dancing and singing to the song. Rainbow Dash really got into it and started swinging her head around while Apple Jack followed suit. Rarity and Twilight side stepped right to left while Pinkie Pie hopped around laughing. Fluttershy, like Luna swayed side to side. Princess Celestia acted like this was the most fun she had in years and was doing something close to Rugia’s walking in place routine. Candace came up and danced with Rugia who began doing “the monkey”. The lot of them danced like there was no tomorrow. Rugia thought he would make an impression on them but not this much.

(Wait till the end of the song, unless you were not listening to it. Just let your imagination do the rest.)

They kept dancing till the song ended. None of them had ever experienced a party with a song like that one. The rest of the time was spent with more songs and laughter. Rugia really felt like he was able to make a lot of ponies happy and became friends with not just Celestia and Luna, but with the mane six as well. Maybe his life here will be better than the one he had on Earth. But what really made him leave Earth in the first place? Only time will tell.