Attack of the Robot Unicorn
Attack of the Robot Unicorn
Years ago, two brilliant young unicorn engineers lived in Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria. These engineers, the twins Anode and Cathode, had brilliant ideas that had the potential to completely redefine how ponies viewed both magic and technology.
The world was not ready. Their findings were discarded by closed minded fools. They performed their experiments in front of some of the biggest names in the fields they were merging, but were decried as tricksters, attempting to make fools of the academic community. Disgraced, these two unicorns left pony society, bitter and filled with hate.
Soon, their work is coming to fruition. Deep in the Everfree Forest, in an underground laboratory, they toiled, building the ultimate fusion of magic and machinery. The first of many monstrosities they would unleash upon the land that cast them aside as tricksters and dreamers.
The two mares had been working for years for this moment. The time to strike had yet to arrive, but it was approaching quickly. It was time for a test.
“Bring forth the magic engine!” Cathode bellowed, standing over the work table where their first masterpiece lay, ready to be given life. Her eyes were light pink, framed by black glasses. Her coat a bright sky blue, and her mane mint green, a small diagram of electrical flow on her flank.
“Say please.” Anode replied, levitating the magic engine in front of herself. Like her sister, she wore glasses, and she had an almost identical cutie mark, though her coat was bright yellow and her mane sunset orange, with green eyes.
“...Oh, for...Give me that.” Cathode's telekinesis took hold, pulling the device away from her sister. “Installing magic engine!” She shouted, placing it within the machine.
“I can see that, Cath.” Anode told her, rolling her eyes.
“Just because you have no sense for the dramatic doesn't mean I have to make this boring!” Cathode replied, finishing up the connections. “Alright...Activating! Attack unit, Robot Unicorn Zero Zero One!” She shouted, cackling.
“It's just a test run. Calm down.” Anode told her, moving closer to their creation.
“...Why must you spoil all of my fun?” Cathode hissed, tapping a small “on” switch. The robot unicorn's eyes began glowing as Cathode evaluated the energy output levels. “Levels normal...Check visual tracking, please.”
Anode waved her hoof in front of the robot's head, its eyes tracking her movement. “Visual tracking operational.” Cathode took down a note.
“Excellent. Check directional hearing?” Anode just stared at her. “UGH. PLEASE CHECK DIRECTIONAL HEARING!” Anode smirked. She reached across the room with her magic, grabbing a wrench from their toolbox and whacking it against the wall far behind the machine. It's head turned sharply toward the source of the noise.
“Directional hearing operational.”
“Excellent. Check vocal synthesizers...please.” Cathode requested, making note of the directional hearing results.
“Oh, um...we were doing that today?” Anode asked, nervous.
“Look, I know the speech algorithms aren't what we want them to be yet, but you said you checked the synthesizers before, and we need to make sure they come online properly in conjunction with the rest of the machine. There's no reason not to.”
“...I can think of a reason not to.”
“ANNE.” Cathode barked.
“Fine, fine...You're not gonna like this, though...AURU-001, state directive!” The robot unicorn's mouth did not move with its words, merely hanging open as the sound emerged.
“When it's cold, outside, am I here in vain? Hold on to the night, there will be no shame! Always, I wanna be with--”
“AURU-001, cease vocal functions!” Cathode shouted, glaring at her sister.
“Look, I know what you're thinking, but I really, REALLY like that song, and when I put it in there, all we were doing was checking to make sure the speakers would work.” She watched her sister, who continued to glower at her. Apparently her excuse wasn't clever enough to be believed. “...Y'know, I just had a thought...even with its terrifying size and strength, if we left that in, it might...Lure ponies into a false sense of security?”
“You haven't been working on the speech algorithms at all, have you? You've just been listening to that song, haven't you?” Cathode was seething.
“...Look, I know we're trying to get payback, but what's the point in proving what we're capable of, and tearing down all of Equestria brick by brick, if we can't have a little fun while we do it?” Anode asked, hoping to appeal to her sister's sense of fun.
“...Alright, well, you keep ruining my fun, so, I'll tell you what. You let me have my maniacal laughs, and stop insisting I say please, and we'll just stick with the song.”
“Deal!” Anode cheered. “Now, what's next on the checklist?
“Next...” she reached over to the robot and flipped another switch. “Engaging servos to activate extremities. Anode, begin testing balance and locomotion.” She ordered. Anode held up a ball in front of the robot, which gave a satisfying squeak each time she squeezed it between her hooves.
“See the ball? See the ball, 001? GO GET IT!” she threw the ball, the robotic unicorn taking off after it. The ball popped under the force with which the robot stomped on it. “Balance and locomotive capabilities are within desired parameters.” Another note was made.
“Engage horn.” Cathode ordered.
Anode spread the artificial mane and opened a small panel, hitting a button with her hoof. “Horn engaged.”
“Test telekinesis.”
“Testing telekinesis!!!” Anode chucked an empty beverage container at the robot unicorn, who caught it in the air and threw it to the side with its magic. “Works just fine on something small.”
“Test target acquisition.” Cathode watched with interest. Anode fetched a large number of pictures. In any of them, all the ponies who appeared, with the exception of the sisters whenever they were present, quickly had their heads burned out of the image in a burst of magic.
“Target acquisition is 100%. Well, when the target's a 2-dimensional image. The offensive magic is also operating wonderfully. To which I should add, there's holes in the wall now.”
“Mm.” Cathode made another note. “Do you think that it'll shear clean through a real target's body and hit whatever's behind the target, or do you think a real pony will slow down the blast?”
“Hard to say. We'll just have to figure that out later.” Cathode sighed at this response.
“...Why don't we take our test run a little further?” She asked, grinning wickedly. “We should figure out how much it can lift, and how much damage it can do...”
Anode nodded and grabbed two ear pieces and microphone. “AURU-001, prepare for field test.” Armored plating slid over the robot's body, shifting into place. All maintenance panels were closed, all access to the magic engine was locked off. Cathode began cackling maniacally, Anode rolling her eyes in response. They departed their laboratory and made their way to the edge of the Everfree Forest, to the town of Ponyville.
Anode put on the ear piece, connected to the robot unicorn's own audio sensors, her microphone brought along to allow her to give orders from a distance. They stood at the border of the forest and the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Deactivate automatic targeting.” Anode ordered. If things didn't work, she didn't want to end up full of holes. “AURU-001, obtain apple tree, and move 4 meters.”
Big Macintosh was happily doing a hard day's work in the orchard, when he heard wood creaking and ground shifting. “What in the hay...?” He ambled casually toward the source of the noise. There was a loud crash, and he started running toward the source. An uprooted tree lay on its side. The odd part was it hadn't just fell. It was a good way off from where it had been planted. Mac shrugged, struggling a bit to get under the tree before standing, balancing the trunk on his back. He stood it back up in the torn dirt, which he began packing down around its roots to hold it in place. That was when he noticed something shining on his the periphery of his vision.
“...Hey, Cathode? Maybe we shouldn't...” Anode twiddled her hooves.
“Anne, I know exactly what you're thinking, and I'm thinking it too. I'm also thinking that we're only thinking that because neither of us has seen anypony besides each other in so long. Let alone a stallion.”
“I know, I know.” She frowned.
“...Fine, we can let him live.” Cathode rolled her eyes.
“Really?”
“...You saw him pick up a tree, right? A full grown tree, on his own? If, by some miracle, he managed to dodge a blast from the horn, he'd probably be strong enough to break AURU-001. And while we could always build another one, I'd rather we come back from a field test with a fully functioning machine.” Cathode told her sister, mostly just rationalizing her desire to not see this magnificent beast of a stallion harmed.
Big Macintosh had been staring at this strange metal pony for some time. It's eyes followed his hoof when he waved it, but it hadn't said anything. Then again, neither had Macintosh. Maybe this pony was a little shy, like him? Unfortunately, he couldn't stand around pondering the mysteries of metal ponies all day. He trotted off to get back to work.
“He's leaving!!! AURU-001, FOLLOW HIM!” Anode shouted into the microphone.
Everywhere he went, this stranger he found in the orchard kept following him. Needless to say, Big Macintosh was feeling very uneasy. He started to speed up, but the metal pony instantly matched his pace. He took off at a run! Cathode and Anode hung back a little, but followed both the stallion and the machine through the orchard. He eventually reached two other ponies.
“Hi, Big Macintosh!” Apple Bloom smiled amiably as she helped Granny Smith hang the laundry. “Who's yer friend?”
“Uhhh...” He took a large step to the side, the robot unicorn taking a step to the side as well.
“Auru, you can cease pursuit.” Anode told him with a sigh.
“Well, THIS is no good!” Cathode moaned. “The foal's too cute to attack, and the nag!?”
“I know, right? She's liable to drop dead before we even give the order. Oh, the foal's approaching AURU!”
“I'm Apple Bloom! What's yer name?” She asked, curious about the mysterious metal stranger. The robot unicorn stared at her for a moment before its mouth began hanging open.
“Always, I wanna be with you, and make believe with you, and live in harmony, harmony, oh love!” It's mouth closed. Apple Bloom stared in confusion and disappointment.
“...Nnnope.” Big Macintosh took off running once again.
Applejack exited the house to the startling surprise of her brother fleeing from some kind of iron pony that was staring into her little sister's face. She yearned to express her shock, but found that she didn't possess the words.
“Oh! Oh! Her, have him attack her!” Cathode giggled. Finally, they found a viable target!
“AURU-001, target the mare!” Anode ordered into the microphone. The machine's eyes went to Applejack. Then Apple Bloom. Then Granny Smith. Then back to Applejack. “THE MARE! Oh, for, THE ORANGE ONE.”
Cathode took out her clipboard. “'Has difficulty responding to stupidly vague commands,'” She said as she wrote.
The robot's horn began to glow. It was staring at Applejack. She felt beads of sweat form across her brow. “Well, that ain't good...” A blast of magical energy burst out toward her.
“APPLEJACK!” Her sister cried out. Fortunately, the farm pony had managed to duck at the last moment. Unfortunately, it was not without significant cost. The remains smoldered on the ground. Applejack's hat was no more.
“Wow, good reflexes,” Anode mused.
“That thing tried to hurt either of y'all?” Applejack asked, frantically stepping around bursts of offensive magical energy. Apple Bloom and Granny Smith shook their heads. “Then I musta done somethin' ta tick it off somethin' powerful. So if it's just mad at me, before it blows anymore holes in Sweet Apple Acres...I guess I should get the heck outta here.” Her sister and grandmother both nodded. She took off into town to go and find somepony to help evict this trespasser. She had not, unfortunately, counted on it following her.
“TWILIGHT! RAINBOW! ANYPONY, HELP!!!” She bellowed, running in an erratic serpentine to avoid the deadly energy that was forming small craters into the ground around her. Ponies fled in panic as Applejack was chased through the town.
Eventually, the calamity drew the attention of her friends, who were now formulating a plan as Applejack ran in circles around the library.
“Alright, here's the pl...wait. Where's Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, confused.
“Well, she's Fluttershy, so probably either about to stare down some kind of iron monster that's chasing her friend, or hiding under her bed because she doesn't want to have to meet the new...'pony'.” Rainbow Dash told her, a bit unclear as to what they should even be calling the thing that was, as they spoke, still chasing Applejack in circles. To get a better view, Anode and Cathode had ascended to a rooftop, hiding by a chimney.
“Silly Dashie, Fluttershy never hides under the bed! She just hides under the covers, on TOP of the bed! Besides, she said she had to go inside and make sure Spike was safe!” Pinkie Pie asserted. There would be an uncomfortable silence as the others contemplated exactly how Pinkie knew this, if not for Applejack's continued screams.
“...Moving on, Pinkie, I want you to distract the...thing chasing Applejack. Rainbow, you grab AJ and bring her into the library through my balcony. Rarity, you and me will be inside the library. Keep your eyes out the windows. If it manages to ignore Pinkie, you'll have to distract it. Pull it's tail, throw dust in its face, just use magic to try to confuse it. Once Applejack and Rainbow are inside the library, I'll put up a barrier to keep the...whatever it is out.”
“Wait, dear, what about Pinkie?” Rarity interjected. “She'll be stuck outside of the barrier!”
“WHY AIN'T ANYPONY HELPING ME!?!?!”
“Hey, yeah! What about me? How do I get in?” Pinkie pouted at Twilight's lack of consideration. Twilight just rolled her eyes.
“Pinkie, how do you USUALLY get into my library? You only use the door a fifth of the time!”
“Oh, right. I'll meet you guys inside then!” Pinkie ran off. The others quickly hurried to their positions. Rainbow Dash swooped down and grabbed Applejack as Pinkie Pie threw out two heaping hoof-fulls of confetti into the robot unicorn's eyes. It stood still when its eyes were cleared, having lost track of its target.
“AURU-001, attack the pink mare!” The horn began to glow, and it took aim. Though its eyes had been set on Pinkie, it still managed to lose sight of her. Pressure sensors indicated something on its back.
“I'd love to stay and chat. I mean, how often do you meet somepony so extra-special-awesome that they're made of metal? It's CRAZY! Buuut, my friends are waiting for me.” a magic barrier had just gone up around the library. She climbed off the unicorn, and began hopping down the lane, away from Ponyville's tree of knowledge. With every hop, she bounced just over the impact of a magical blast on the ground. She crested a hill, and descended, out of sight. A loud whistle was heard, the robot unicorn, baffled, turned to see her standing on the balcony of the library, waving and grinning like the lunatic she was. It opened fire once again, this blast merely being absorbed by the barrier.
Anode and Cathode could only stare at the events that had transpired.
“...Was that even a pony?” Cathode wondered aloud.
“...I think we may have some kind of quantum phenomenon on our hands...when out of sight, she occupies every possible location, until she is observed.” Anode mused.
“...That doesn't even make sense!”
“I'm open to better theories if you have any!”
The robot unicorn continued its assault on the magic shield. Twilight rubbed her head in annoyance and pain. Fluttershy peered out from under the table, clinging to an entirely underwhelmed Spike.
“Twilight? Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, as Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack walked down the stairs.
“Urgh...Each time he shoots at the barrier, it feels like someone's trying to break down a door that's attached to my brain.” She rubbed her temples with her hooves.
“Then we best figger out a way ta stop that thing.” Applejack told them, eyes narrow and grinning widely.
“It hurt your hat, didn't it?” Rarity's expression and voice were both equally flat as she asked the rhetorical question. “I'll make you a new one once this is over. I think the safest course of action, provided Twilight can keep it up, is to just wait for that thing out there to tire itself out.”
“But since we don't KNOW if Twilight can keep it up, we better think of something else.” Rainbow Dash told them, hovering around in thought. “...Fluttershy, I know you can't control it, but it never fails when your friends are in danger. Twilight, if she opens the door, she'll still be safe in the barrier, right?” Twilight nodded between groans, a migraine building up in her head. “I want you to try to use the stare.”
“B-but, but I--”
“Repeat after me, Fluttershy,” Rainbow set her hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders, looking into her eyes. “'It's trying to hurt my friends.'”
“'I-it's t-trying to hurt muh-my friends?'” She whimpered weakly, shaking with fear.
“Again. 'It's trying to hurt my friends.'” Rainbow repeated.
“'It's trying to hurt my friends...'” The response came back stronger this time.
“'It's trying to hurt my--'”
“IT'S TRYING. TO HURT. MY FRIENDS.” She shouted, pushing past Dash. She grabbed the door. “IT'S TRYING. TO HURT. MY FRIENDS.” She yelled again as she threw the door open. Her eyes found those of the robot unicorn and she laid into it with the full force of her will, but gazing into its eyes, her stare found no purchase, as the magical blasts continued to slam against the barrier.
“Oh dear...I don't think it's alive.” She slammed the door shut and ran upstairs. “TWILIGHT CAN I BORROW YOUR BLANKETS PLEASE!?” She called out, her voice quivering with dread.
“YEAH!” Twilight called back, grimacing as the assault continued.
“Told you, she hides under the covers, not under the bed!”
“That's not important, Pinkie.” Twilight was growing agitated from the pain. She walked over to the door and pulled it open again. “HEY. GO. AWAY.” She yelled at it, the robot's answer coming in a blast that impacted on the barrier right in front of her face. “AT LEAST TELL US WHY YOU'RE ATTACKING US!”
“Melting the ice for me, jump into the ocean, hold back the tide, I see your love in motion!” It sang, continuing to blast at her. Suddenly, Pinkie was beside it.
“When it's cold, outside, am I here, in vain? Hold on to the night, there will be no shame!” She began singing. Both the pink earth pony and the robot unicorn began singing out in unison as the latter changed targets to the former, trying to blast her.
“ALWAYS, I WANNA BE WITH YOU, AND MAKE BELIEVE WITH YOU, AND LIVE IN HARMONY, HARMONY, OH LOVE!” Both continued to sing.
Twilight's head was pounding. This thing had come into her town. It had attacked her friends. It had pounded its magic against hers like a mallet on a gong, if the gong was inside her brain. And now it was shouting that STUPID SONG. Twilight would never attack another pony when this angry. She would never channel so much malice against any living creature. But Fluttershy said it wasn't alive. That was all the poorly thought out rationalization she needed. The barrier fell. Twilight's eyes began emitting a festering, bubbling green aura. Her horn began radiating darkness.
“SHUT. UP.” She yelled, an immense burst of dark magic flying free from her horn, right into the robot unicorn. Black crystals began forming on its body, bursting out from within the robotic monstrosity, tearing it apart from the inside out. Twilight took a few deep breaths to regain her composure.
Anode and Cathode stared from the roof top in shock. They ran to the far side of the building and quickly climbed down.
“Whatdowedowhatdowedo!?” Cathode was panicking. Now that there wasn't a machine drawing attention and sewing panic, the citizens here would surely notice them on their way back out.
“Calm down, Cath. I have an idea.” Anode walked over to an old barrel, lifted her front left leg, and held it out to the side. “Dislocate my shoulder.”
“Wh-what?!” Cathode's eyes were tearing up.
“JUST DO IT!” The moment she saw the magical aura around her leg, Anode bit down hard on the edge of the barrel to keep from screaming in pain as her limb was twisted and yanked out of socket. She let the tears of agonizing pain stream down her muzzle. “Alright...We...We go out there. We say we built it. We say it malfunctioned. It attacked you. I jumped onto it, to throw its aim off, it hurled me against the wall and dislocated my shoulder. We...” Her breathing was ragged. “We followed it into town to try to stop it. We came together because you wouldn't leave without me....And...” her mind was fogged with pain. “And, and...I slowed you down...because I was injured.” Cathode stared in silence as she registered everything her sister said.
“Heh...” She gave a weak smile, levitating her sister's front half so that she wouldn't need to limp. “I'm sure glad I'm not the smart sister.” Anode nuzzled Cathode lovingly.
“We probably won't get away scot-free. But they should be at least more lenient. Now come on.” They made their way toward the library, and acted as relieved as they could manage when they checked out the damage to their machine. It was completely, utterly destroyed.
“Who are you two?” Twilight asked as she watched them look over the machine, looking haggard and weak.
“I-I'm Cathode...And this is Anode...And...That's our failed experiment gone wrong...” She nodded toward the remains of the robot. “I-it hurt my sister...her shoulder's dislocated...”
“...Fluttershy!” Twilight called out, her voice still thick with annoyance. There was no response. A moment later, the pegasus floated out the door to the balcony and onto the ground, surrounded by the purple aura of Twilight's magic, and completely covered in a blanket.. The other four ponies, and Spike, all came out the door.
“Fluttershy, can you relocate a shoulder?” Twilight asked. Hearing about the need for medical help, the pegasus peeked out. She moved beside her.
“Oh, you poor thing! This...This will hurt a lot...” She warned. Fluttershy hated to cause pain, but this wouldn't be the first bone she had to help put back into place, as long as one wasn't only counting pony bones.
“I'm sure it will...” Anode smiled weakly, still in pain. Fluttershy lifted the emergency patient's leg to the proper angle, causing groans of pain.
“I...I don't think I'm strong enough... Applejack, could you help me?”
“Sure, whaddya need me ta do?” She asked.
“Ju-just put your hoof flat against hers while I keep her leg steady, and push it in.” Applejack gulped.
“Yer sure?” Fluttershy nodded. “Well, alright then.” There was a sickening pop and a cry of pain.
“Now, you'll still need to stay off of it for a few days.” Fluttershy told her sweetly, before realizing she was talking to someone she didn't know, and shrinking away.
Twilight broke down the crystals she'd formed and gathered the remains of their assailant. “Alright, girls, I'm going to talk to these ladies in private.” Hers was a tone not to be taken lightly, and her friends shied away from her, a little worried, but understanding.
“Well now that your leg's taken care of, you two are coming into my library. I am going to drink some tea to try to calm down this headache your...thing gave me. And you're going to tell me all about your little toy here.” She grumpily stomped back through the door, bringing every last piece of the robot unicorn with her. They went down a staircase to Twilight's lab, and even after she set the parts of the machine down, her horn still glowed. Three cushions floated down the stairs, and each of the unicorns took a seat, but still her horn glowed, and the twins began to fear that she would attack them.
When the glow finally stopped, Anode began explaining. “So, you know how--” Twilight held up a hoof to silence her. They sat uncomfortably in the silence like school foals forced to wait outside the principal's office, fully knowing they were about to be chastised. Finally, a high, keening whistle came from upstairs.
“Tea?” Twilight offered flatly. They were baffled. Had she put the kettle on without even watching it? Was she going to pour the tea without even having to see the cup? They each shook their heads numbly at the offer. Her horn glowed for a moment, and soon Spike came downstairs with a cup of tea. Twilight sipped it, and took a deep breath.
“Oh, heavens...I thought you were making tea from down here...” Twilight stared at Cathode in confusion, until her brain registered what the comment implied.
“Oh, no, Spike and I have a system worked out based on how many times I ring a bell that we've got in the kitchen.”
“My idea!” Spike said proudly.
“So. You were saying?” Twilight looked to Anode.
“Um...You know how programming runes work?” Twilight stared at her with impatience. “Oh, yes, of course you would, I mean, what kind of pony would live in a library and not be well read? Anyway, we inscribed hundreds of thousands of lines of programming onto a single orb, and then shrunk it.” Twilight's eyes went wide. Most runic programs were forced to be very simple ones, like the ones that told the propeller attached to Rainbow's turtle when and how hard to spin.
“If you had that much space to program on...” Twilight spoke, her fatigue and headache taking a back seat to her interest in the intellectual discussion.
“You could make an incredibly complex machine, capable of figuring out problems!” Cathode said, her smile a bit too big for her face.
“Unfortunately, you could also make a lot more errors that go unnoticed...until you turn it on and it rampages through a city.” While this was technically true, Anode withheld the idea that, without errors, it could do the same thing on purpose. “Look, long ago, we figured out how to make something like the robot you tore apart. But nopony would listen. They said our ideas were foalish, that they had no basis. They refuted our findings, claiming we'd altered the data.”
“So, we decided to just go ahead and build one, to prove that we were right.” Cathode added. “We holed up in a little building in the Everfree forest and never looked back.” But now that she did, she remembered that they hadn't decided on vengeance until fairly recently. Their plan had always been humiliation of those who acted against them by proving them wrong.
“And...the magic blasts?” Twilight asked, curious.
“W-well,” Anode sought back through her memories. They had another reason when they decided to make it a unicorn. “We were in the Everfree forest, we figured we might as well make it able to defend us.” The sisters looked at each other, each thinking far back to the days when their vengeance was to be through their own vindication, and not their enemies' destruction. Each wondered how they'd gotten so far off track.
“No, no, how did you do it? No power source for any magical machine has ever been able to produce external magic!” She seemed downright giddy.
Anode and Cathode looked once more at each other, and smiled, tears starting to form in their eyes. They finally had somepony to listen to their ideas and take them seriously.
“The magic engine!” Cathode said proudly. “The fruits of all our labors. The coding was secondary, this is what we wanted to prove worked.” She reached into the remains and produced the device, a large cleft through it where a crystal had burst out.
“But how does it work? What makes it so much different from any other power source?” Twilight asked, eyes wide.
“The same way a unicorn does. We can each hold a large amount of magical energy, more talented unicorns more than others, but...well, I don't have to tell you where it all comes from, do I?” Cathode continued.
“The world around us! So it's not a power source at all, it just catalyzes the ambient magical fields and attunes them to the body it's inside of!” Twilight was positively ecstatic at the idea of such a thing. This may well have been the biggest breakthrough in magic technology in the past century! And she had witnessed it in action!
“Exactly!” Anode said, smiling.
“I can't wait to tell the Princess!” Twilight squealed.
“Yeah!...What?” Cathode spoke, flummoxed. “Princess?”
“Oh, yeah, um, Princess Celestia taught me magic. Um, personally.” Twilight blushed a bit as she watched their jaws drop.
“A-and you're going to tell her about this?! About how it actually works?” Anode asked.
“Well, sure! This is a big deal!...By the way, what was with that song?”
“...My sister loves it.” Cathode said flatly. Twilight shrugged, reasoning that there was just no accounting for taste.
They continued their discussion through the night and early into the morning. Anode and Cathode had finally achieved everything they originally hoped for from the day they first set hoof into the Everfree forest. Respect, credulity, and praise for their ideas.
They also found something far more important in the purple unicorn who'd destroyed their life's work. They found a friend. Through her, they'd find many more friends, and over time, they'd find themselves a home in Ponyville.
The End.
Author's Note
So, originally, the idea was, take the adult swim game, throw it at MLP, and then try to make something equivalent to the first terminator movie, but taking place in Ponyville. But I needed somewhere for the robot unicorn to come from. At first I thought, hey, I could put a disgraced scientist in a lab in the Everfree. Then I thought, maybe he could have partner, who really likes "Always" by Erasure? The next thing I knew, Anode and Cathode were around, and things took a turn for the silly.