It was an ordinary day in Equestria, the Sun was shining, the birds were singing, the ground was still, things that a regular being would consider normal. Twilight was not one such being, but she definitely preferred it when Equestria didn't get into unwanted trouble.
She was walking near Everfree forest, so as to collect interesting samples of nature, and not get attacked by the denizens of the forest. She was trotting up to a particularly interesting looking bush when she saw something that, at first glance, looked like a pile of metal. Upon closer inspection Twilight found it was some sort of machine, not equine in form, more bipedal.
It appeared to have buttons on what she could only assume was its chest, along with a switch and small empty panel. At its head she only found a larger panel and two bars that jutted out of its, assumed, face.
She didn't know what to do with such a creature, she tried focusing her magic on it, but she could find nowhere to pinpoint. Was it possible this creature was not intertwined with the magic of Equestria? Such creatures were myths, everything had a link to magic in Equestria. But this one...
She stopped thinking about it and starting documenting it, this was much more interesting than some stupid foliage.
Something caught her eye.
She looked up.
A few meters away from her she saw something lying on the ground. She levitated it over to herself. It was yet another panel, only this one wasn't attached to the creature, and it had straps on it. She glanced again at the machine that lay before her, then back at the panel, back and forth until she made a connection.
She strapped it to the only empty space on the creatures body, the top of his head, then sat back.
Nothing.
Still nothing.
Then something.
The panel on the creatures face lit up and immediately afterwards its frame sprung up into sitting position. It stared at Twilight. She returned the stare with a sheepish smile, then decided to try and engage in conversation.
"Hi there." She pursed her lips as she immediately regretted doing anything.
The machine still stared, and proceeded in its absent gaze until, it spoke.
"Hel-lo. Life-form." It said in a stilted, male voice.
Twilight exhaled and relaxed, it understood her and spoke Equestrian. That's always a good start with a new species.
Twilight cleared her throat before continuing her greeting "I'm Twilight Sparkle, what's your name?"
The creature broke it's emotionless stare instantly upon hearing the word 'name'.
"I..." It looked down "I don't have name. A name. I don't have a name."
The panel on the creatures face had now become fairly transparent and Twilight could now see a machine behind it. But it was strange, it didn't look like any machine powered by magic.
"Excuse me for sounding brash, but, what exactly are you?"
"I am a robot. Powered by solar energy. That's all know about myself, and I could only see that from my reflection in your." It paused as its head leaned closer for a second "Eyes."
"You could see your reflection in my eyes? You must have very good eyesight."
"You mean you cannot see your reflection in mine?" It tilted its head questioningly as it said this.
"No, I, uh, can't. What did you say about power?"
"Solar power?"
"Yeah." She cleared her throat again "That."
"Well, my database is not complete, but I know that the Sun's rays go into this panel, which is on my head. It..." It paused as it thought "Goes... It heats up water which turns to steam... It turns a generator... It produces electricity." It looked up at the Sun "That's all I can remember..."
Twilight managed to take all this information in, but the last part struck her as odd "El... Electricity? That's lightning isn't it? Like the pegasi produce in their storms?"
The robot seemed taken aback by this "Pegasi? Pegasi are but myth and legend. Winged equines do not exist."
"No. Trust me. They exist." To further enforce her point, she unfurled her wings and flapped them gently, causing her to hover slightly above the ground.
The robot looked in, assumingly, awe at the 'feat' happening before its eyes.
It proceeded to speak as she landed on the ground "Maybe my database was broken along with me losing lots of information as well." It looked at her again, but it was looking above her eyes. "What is that on your forehead?"
"That's a horn, it allows me to use my magical powers" She said it as if it wasn't a big deal.
The robot took that information as if someone had just told it that everything orbited the Earth "Now I may have lost information on a lot of things, but I am quite sure that magic was never in my database." It looked at the grass "You wouldn't happen to have some form of information of this place, would you?"
Twilight, of course, did own a library. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."
"Excellent, please may you take me to said information so I may catch up on past events. Or current, if I am what life-forms usually say, lucky."
They arrived back at Twilight's library half an hour later.
"Do you need anything to eat or drink?" Twilight asked.
"If I remember correctly, I do not need nourishment to remain functional, but I suppose we can always find out in one to two weeks."
"Um... So is that a no?"
"Yes."
Twilight quickly worked her way through the small maze of negatives and remembered what the robot had come here for.
"Which book did you want to read?"
"How many are there?"
"Precisely six-thousand, nine-hundred and seventy five." She smiled smugly.
"Give me precisely twenty three hours, thirty two minutes and seven seconds and I'll have read them all."
Twilight grimaced slightly "All of them? And you'll put them back exactly where you found them?"
"I assure you, I will. I am not one to ruin another's collection of information." It said, taking a book off the shelf.
Twilight gave a relieved sigh "Good. Okay then, have fun..."
"I literally don't know the meaning of the word, but I'll be sure to look it up!" It flipped a page.
Twilight smiled slightly, then headed to her bedroom.
Author's Note
Hey! Look at that! I'm back!
