New Loyalty

Status: Offline

Cause of major shutdown: Unknown

What's going on? I just went offline for no reason. Something's not functioning properly. Can this day get any worse?

I was now . . . walking in my digital dream. Great. So we are able to dream while being offline. This I did not know. Everything around me were numbers. Prime numbers, odd numbers, even numbers, etc. Am I in my memory core? Hmm . . . this might be interesting.

I was looking around to see if I could find anything that might help me get back online. NG-18 and every other pony must be worried about me. I'm guessing I went into a hard shutdown, like a computer that did not respond to the commands of human and was forced to make a hard shutdown. Well, that's my hypothesis.

The noises I kept hearing were the sounds of what computers do. You know, calculating math problems, analyzing data, research, etc. I didn't feel annoyed at the noises. Felt fine to me.

I honestly think I needed to just go offline for a while. Maybe when I had teleported to this world, the electricity from teleporting had screwed my power grid, causing me to have no choice but to make an unsuspected shutdown.

I decided to lie on the floor and lie down on my back. After doing so, I put both my forelegs right behind my back. Now I was just waiting to see if anything was going to happen in the next couple of minutes being here.

I'm trying to not get bored. Sure. Being offline feels good, but when it comes to trying to meet the leaders of this country, I had to be online. Plus, I want to understand more of this world I'm in. I mean, wouldn't you want to understand what it would be like to be living in a world that contained life just like earth? I know you would, of course.

Scientists always try to see if life does exist far, far away from our universe. But looks like I found it before they did. Hehehe . . . score one for me. I beat them right to it.

So far, nothing is happening.

It feels like, I don't know, hours, I suppose? How long am I going to wait to come online? This shouldn't take long. Okay, okay. If you count when I came to this world, it did take a day to get back online. But still! I should've been online now.

I wonder if . . . I'm able to even send messages. Might be possible. Let me just . . . try to make an 'okay' message to every droid who's probably trying to get to me wake up from this . . . deep sleep.

Yawn . . . I do feel sleepy. Hehehe.

Okay, on to the message.

Dear, NG-18 and all the other droids,

     I'm perfectly fine. I've just gone into a major shutdown. There's no need to worry. I'm sure this is not permanent. Just temporary. Nothing too major. I hope you are just carrying me around and taking me to somewhere safe. My guess is you guys are taking me to Canterlot. Well, that's what I think. I wish I could see what's happening on your side. But my camera is not responding. Please, don't feel bad for me. Although I'm your commander, you guys can still do what you’ve got to do to stay on task.

I promise. When I come back online, I'll be sure to tell you that I was giving you the truth and nothing but the truth. After all, I'm not going to abandon any of you. I'll be at your side ‘til the end of our existence as droids. And, hey, don't be afraid to talk to me. I'll listen ‘til you guys stop responding.

Sincerely,

                  RD-115

Message has been sent.

Now, what can I do in my mind? Might as well fly around since there's nothing to do here.

I get up and stretch my wings to their fullest to fly in the digital sky.

"Impressive. You are still functioning properly after going offline, RD-115.”

“What the . . .? Who the buck said that?”

“I am the one who killed the humans you were with in Area 51. How easy it was to kill them. Their screams were so delicious to hear. Screams that I wish could've lasted longer. But, humans don't live forever. Few live to reach hundred in their life. These humans died at such a young age.”

“NNM-13. How are you able to contact me?”

“Isn't it obvious, child?”

“Hey! I'm no child!” I retaliated.

“Oh, look. You're acting like one right now. Why would the military make a droid that's so childish?”

“You're just trying to make me build up anger. Well, guess what? I'm not going to give you my anger!” I exclaimed.

“I feed on many things, RD-115. I feed on fear, pain, sorrow, hatred, jealousy, etc. These emotions fill me with delightful tastes. Tastes that I wish could last forever. Tell me; isn't this what you want, child?”

“What? No! I wouldn't do that to humans or to any living organism in the whole wide world! I care about the humans’ safety! I care about if they need someone to talk to. I'm not going to make them suffer! I'll show them my loyalty!” She's testing me. She's one hundred percent testing me.

“How are you certain you will ALWAYS be loyal to them? There are times a human has to turn away from its friends. I know you will turn against—not just turn against the humans—but to the droids you care so dearly about.”

“THAT'S A LIE!! You're trying to tempt me to follow in your hoof steps! I'm not going to stab any human or droid in the back. You're the one who did that to the humans, not me! What did they ever do to you? They’re bound to have treated you just like every other droid in the assembly line equally.” She really is trying to break me, isn’t she?

“The humans are the masters, and we're their slaves to do their bidding. I'm not going to listen to some unintelligent species that want me to do something they could do all by themselves. They have humans. They control one another for power. And what do you know, power consumes until they kill one another for it.”

“Okay, I do have to agree on how power corrupts humans. But not all humans are like that! There are humans that know the limits of power. I've searched in my data banks to see what countries that are blood thirsty for power, like Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia, etc. Not all countries are like that. Our country, the United States of America, makes sure that the president doesn't have all the power to himself.”

“You are blind, child. Leaders of a country can do what they please. They control the people with lies of promises. The people are the ones who give power to the people who will one day end their lives.”

“You ended the lives of the humans in that base we were all in! You're the one that's thirsty for more power!”

“Hehe, I suppose you are right about that. But really, RD-115. Why do you think I killed them?”

“You thought they were a threat and you ended them.”

“Yes and no. I knew they weren't a threat from the start of coming online. I think you thought there was a malfunction in my system. You are wrong. I killed them just because I wanted to. I wasn't going to be a slave to them. And I didn't want to be controlled by YOU, RD-115.”

“NNM-13, I would've given you free will  just like me. I understand they made me like that. But I could've done that for you and every other droid! I know I'm the one in charge of keeping them under control, but I wouldn't treat them like a droid that follows every order by the book. I'm no master to them or to you. I would've talked to you and stood by your side. But . . . you destroyed it.” Seriously, I would've totally given her free will. Wouldn't that have ended better for everyone?

I sighed.

“You need to understand that I don't enslave them. What good comes from enslaving other droids just like me? It wouldn't be right.” I was just . . . feeling sad about this. I don't want to be that type of droid. Heck, I'm pretty sure all my friends know that I wouldn't go that far in being the bad droid that'll wipe their motherboard clean. When I mean “clean” I mean total termination of my friends.

There was nothing but silence. NMM-13 was not talking again. She must be thinking about what I said to her. She hasn't shown herself yet. Is she waiting for a good time to just show herself here?

I sat on my on haunches to wait for a response. She knows that I'm being patient. I believe she'll acknowledge me soon. Very soon.

Thirty minutes have passed. No communication so far. Not even a word has been released from NMM-13.

Still, I was not rushing her or anything.

There has to be a solution to this mess. There's always a solution . . . right? Right??

She finally spoke once again.

“I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to tempt me to once again follow the humans and be a slave to them, RD-115. I'm not gullible like you think.”

“That's not true! I'm trying t—”

“SILENCE!!!! You're just programmed to fool the enemy is all. I think it's time I make you suffer for your ultimate failure.”

I didn't feel good all of a sudden. I felt . . . my energy being sucked right out of me like a straw sucking up all the liquid out of a drink.

Then, I fell to the ground. My vision . . . went to darkness.

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Uhh . . . my head. What's happening now?

I felt like I was tied down to the wall. In fact, I was tied down to the wall! My vision came back, but all I could see was darkness. I heard the sounds of hoof steps coming to where I was located.

She was here.

NMM-13 was looking at me with her draconic eyes. Her eyes were pinned to me like that of a predator that was about to go in for the kill. It felt like it, too. How would you feel if you were in the situation I was in now? Scared? Fearful? Afraid? Yeah. I don't feel afraid yet.

“NMM-13, what is the meaning of this? Why am I tied down? Come to think of it, isn't this the worst idea you thought of? I can easily just break out of these chains and not have a single dent in my metal coat. What a terrible idea.” I couldn't help but chuckle at this. What's she gonna do? Make me read numerous books like an egghead would do all day, every day?

“This is not even a game that I made you to be in, child. I'm going to sl-”

“Make me read books on the Internet? Seriously, you're just not that scary, NMM-13. I mean, you think you are the big mare droid on the block, but it's I who outmatches you.” As I finished my sentence, I could see she clenched her teeth and looked like she was about to explode like a nuclear bomb. I also noticed steam coming out from both her ears.

Yep. I'm making her lose her motherboard.

“THAT'S QUITE ENOUGH FROM YOU, NO FOR GOOD BUCKING DROID!!!! I'm not going to just have you talk over me and make me blow a fuse in this digital realm of yours. I'm going to torture you until you are officially offline. And once you're offline, I'll then hunt down every last droid and kill that ungrateful soldier that escaped my wrath in Area 51!”

'Wait, a human escaped her?' I couldn't believe what I was hearing from her.

“Now. Let's begin, shall we?” She levitated what looked like . . . knives? Why would she use knives on me?

Without knowing, she fired one of the knives right at me and it hit my left thigh.

“YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!” I screamed in agony. I closed my eyes shut. How am I able to feel this pain?? Humans and other living organisms can feel pain, but me? Why me????

Next thing I felt was . . . was ungodly. The knife started to slowly cut right into my body. The pain was intense. More intense than what I had predicted. It felt like it was ripping me apart from the inside!!

The pain stopped. The feeling of the knife also stopped.

I opened my eyes and was . . . breathing heavily. Yes, breathing. Just like every living thing does.

I looked down to see that . . . that . . . my cutie mark on my left was . . . ripped out of me?! WHAT?!?

“Hehehe. That was very fun to enjoy your scream. Music to my ears. I told you I would make your suffer. If you don't mind, I'm going to forcefully rip the right wing off of you.” She grabbed onto my wing and started to rip it off of me.

The pain.

The pain was . . . INTENSE!?!? I could feel all the pain just slipping right into my circuits. The pain that no one should have to go through.

Then, it finally snapped.

My wing was ripped right off of me. I was crying in agony. This . . . this was torment. I needed to use my weapons. I MUST do it!

I tried to activate my plasma cannons, laser guns; anything that was capable of helping me break free of NMM-13's torment.

Nothing happened.

My weapons were not responding to my command. I tried everything. Nothing. Absolutely nothing was working. I was stripped of my weapons. I'm . . . useless!?!?!?!

“Your weapons aren't going to do anything, RD-115. I took the liberty of making sure I disabled them while you are still in the digital realm I have made you come into. I'm enjoying every last minute. Your screams are so delightful, I could just squeal in happiness. I ripped your wing right off and took your left cutie mark from you.

“What's the matter? You're crying? Why are you crying? Hmm? Why has our military made you so weak? You're pathetic. You can't even endure the pain I'm bringing you. You're afraid. Very afraid I see. This comes to show me you shouldn't have been given the authority of commanding the rest of the droids to do what you want or what the humans want!” She placed her hoof on my chest. She looked me in the eyes. I was still crying. My teeth still gritted over the tremendous pain she has caused me. Me. Her friend. A friend who was talking to her. Trying to get her to stay good. But it seems I failed in doing that.

A flash of light had appeared a few feet from where NMM-13 and I were. There was somepony coming out of it. I zoomed in to see who it was. It was LULU-95 that came out of the portal she must've made to enter my . . . nightmare.

“STOP THIS! NOW!” she commanded.

“Well, well, well. Why, if it isn't my other droid sister, LULU-95. Tell me, have you come to enjoy the suffering of this droid that's supposed to be in command of us?”

“No. I won't allow you to do this to her. She doesn't deserve this. She’s never done anything to us. All you are doing is making her look like she is the enemy. She isn't the enemy! She never was from the start of it.” LULU-95 came closer to NMM-13. She wasn't afraid of her. She wants me to be safe. To be away from NMM-13.

“And you're just going to stop me? The Droid of the Nightmares? HA! You can't even put a single hoof on me, LULU-95. How are you able to defeat me here on my turf?” she asked her.

“Because I'm with her, too.” Another droid came from behind LULU-95. This one was bigger than her. White metal coat, purple eyes, and a mane and tail that were pink, blue, purple, and light green. She also had the sun as her cutie mark. I know this droid. TIA-98 was her name.

“Ah, TIA-98. It is nice to finally meet you once again. It seems both of you want to come save this pathetic excuse of a droid. Do you honestly think this droid is worth saving?” she asked both of them.

“Your behavior isn't what it should be, NMM-13. You are only making this difficult, it seems. Release her and never haunt her in her dreams again,” ordered TIA-98.

There was silence. What was NMM-13 thinking right now? She knew she was already in a difficult spot. TIA-98 and LULU-95 are considered the most lethal droids that were built for the U.S. military. Combine the power of both of them, and they are unstoppable.

“Very well then. I will leave, for now. But don't expect me to keep hiding from you both. I'll leave her in peace.” NMM-13 walked away and disappeared into the shadows of the night.

My chains were broken and I fell to the ground. Both LULU-95 and TIA-98 rushed over to me with concerned faces. LULU-95 wrapped her hooves around me to see I was safe now.

“It's okay, RD-115. You're safe now,” TIA-98 softly said.

“I bled . . . too much oil . . . I feel . . . like I'm about to pass out.” I think I lost a quarter of how much oil was in me. Even though this is a dream, it feels . . . too real to call it a dream. This . . . was a nightmare for me.

“Don't worry. I'll get you back to your original self, RD-115.” As LULU-95 stopped talking, her magic, which was radiating a beautiful blue color, started to envelope me. I didn't feel any pain. What I did feel was my wing regenerating along with my left thigh where my cutie mark was ripped clean off.

The light stopped. I felt . . . great! Like I'm worth a million bucks to the world!

I carefully got back on all fours to see I was fully healed up. Everything seemed to be all good. No signs of malfunction in my systems.

“RD-115, we're glad to see you were not terminated by NMM-13. We're sorry for not getting here sooner,” TIA-98 bowed and so did LULU-95.

“It's okay, TIA-98, LULU-95. You don't have to treat me like I'm powerful. I can't stay mad at you two. Please. At ease, rest.” Both responded and returned to their normal positions.

“I appreciate what you two did for me. Really. I'm honored to have you here with me. I have a question for both of you, however. How are you not being controlled by NMM-13? I thought you guys were either destroyed or became slaves to her.”

“We escaped before she had a chance to even attack us head on. Both of us were able to make it to the portal to be teleported into the new world,” TIA-98 said.

“I was able to make an exact replica of myself to where she thought she had me in her sights. Unfortunately for her, she fell for my trick. That's when we got out of the base,” LULU-95 said.

“So, where are you both now anyways?” I asked them.

“We were in the Everfree Forest. That forest is not like the forests we were shown from the world we come from. We have met up with the other droids and a human soldier who escaped from NMM-13. We're on our way to your location, RD-115!" exclaimed TIA-98 and placed both of her hooves on my shoulders.

“Wake up now, RD-115. Your friends are worried about you. Tell them we're coming. And don't worry. We'll be there for you and for the other living beings who are with you.” LULU-95 smiled.

I closed my eyes to finally wake up from my dream.

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I finally woke up from my nightmare. I didn't hear anything so far but the sound of the wind. I slowly opened my right eye to see if my friends and Twilight's friends were still around me.

They weren't.

A few seconds passed and I wondered if they were still here. Radar showed there were thirty-eight figures one mile away from where I was. Thirty of them should be the royal guards, six of them would have to be Twilight and her friends, while the other two would be NG-18 and RG-64.

I opened both my eyes to notice that I wasn't on the dirt road anymore. I was in a field. They must've carried me here when I went offline. I'm guessing my message did not go through like I wanted it to.

I had to get back to them. They must've thought I dropped dead and would never come back to them. Well, I'm online. I have to get back to them. I extended my wings to their fullest, flew up in the air, and bolted to their location. The map showed that they were heading to where Canterlot is located. I'm surprised that they haven't gone further now.

Time to hit full throttle.

I activated my hoof boosters to get to them a little bit quicker. I was actually about to break the sound barrier. Just need to go a little bit faster, that's all.

Nah. That would hurt their ears. Don't want to go that far to impress Rainbow Dash. I feel like I'm starting to act like her. Guess I'm adapting to the environment much quicker than I expected.

I wasn't that far now. I could see them walking on the dirt road. I got into my cloaking mode to surprise them. And I also temporarily deactivated my call sign. I just want to see how they'll react to me once I show that I'm alright.

I ascended more into the sky. I wanted to get a clearer view of them while up in the air. I could see them all walking. But, something didn't look right. Their expressions were of sadness. NG-18 had his head lowered and he looked like he was . . . was crying. He was crying for me. I. . I have to get down there as soon as possible. He was heartbroken. Heartbroken because he thinks I just left him here in this world.

I went ahead of all of them to land back on the ground.

“NG-18, please. You don't need to be this sad. It could've happened to me or you. You know that.” RG-64 was trying to comfort NG-18.

“She's gone, RG-64. I understand how it feels for a human to lose someone that means a lot to them. Now I feel like my heart was crushed when she fell to ground.” More tears were coming out of NG-18.

I couldn't let this continue to happen.

I reactivated my call sign. I needed him to know that I was right in front of him.

“Umm . . . I'm detecting RD-115's call sign. You getting it, NG-18?” asked RG-64.

“How's that even possible? She's gone.”

“NG-18,” I started. “I'm right here.” I uncloaked myself for him and everyone else to see me.

The expressions is what I predicted.  Everyone, including my friends had a “WHAT!?” expression on their faces.

“And you guys thought I was gone for good. Nope. I'm still here and online.” I just gave them a soft smile to tell them I'm A-Okay.

I was about to talk more but . . . NG-18 tackled me to the ground. Not in a bad. In a good way.

“I thought we lost you!” NG-18 was still crying. “I thought you were off the grid forever.”

“Why would I leave the friend I like being with here?” I asked him.

He just kept on hugging me tight. Trying to make sure that I wasn't an illusion that was screwing with his mind. I looked him in the eyes, and I could see the pain he was going through when I went into a hard shutdown. I looked deeper into his eyes, there was something that . . . that he was going to do when I was gone. Something that wasn't going to end well.

“NG-18, you know I'm not gonna leave you, right? I'm not gonna have you be alone here.” He looked like he was about to cry his eyes out. Are we able to produce this many tears?

“Don't cry anymore. Everything is going to be okay.” I placed my hoof on his right cheek. I was hearing somepony was also crying in background. I turned my head to my left to see Pinkie Pie just tearing up; rivers of water came out of her eyes. Jeez. I never knew she was able to cry that many tears. Twilight and her friends were trying their best to comfort her. She did calm down later on. Guess she likes seeing reunions between two ponies or two droids I guess.

“What happened to cause you to go offline, RD-115?” NG-18 was crying in my chest now.

“Let's just say I had a nightmare,” I responded. “But you don't need to worry. There were two other droids that helped me to wake up from my nightmare.”

“I'm . . . sniff . . . happy to see you're alright.” I wrapped my wings around him to let him know I cared about him.

“Stay strong, NG-18.”

“I . . . I will.”

“HEY!” yelled someone.

“Who said that?” Twilight asked.

“Wasn't me, darling,” replied Rarity.

“Over here! They’re over here!” another voice yelled out.

“I see them! I see RD-115!”

“Crap. Crap. Crap. Holy crap. I never ran this much before during basic training. This is not good for my heart.” Wait a minute. I know some of those voices. They kept on getting louder. And louder and louder. I spotted what looked like a bipedal figure coming to our location. Black uniform and dark light armor on parts of its body. Also carrying an assault rifle. The other guns I could see were a pistol in its holster on the right side of its belt and a shotgun on the back of the human. This must be the human that TIA-98 and LULU-95 were talking about.

I let go of NG-18 and told him to not get worried of me meeting the soldier. I also told Twilight, her friends, the royal guards, and RG-64 to not do anything that might cause the soldier to react in bad way.

The soldier stopped in his tracks and was trying to catch his breath. He was a U.S. Marine. His name tag said he was known as 'Joseph.' He looked like he might throw up, but was trying his best to not throw up.

“You . . . *pant* wouldn't believe . . . how long . . . *pant pant* it took us to get to you, RD-115.” Joseph was extremely exhausted. He has guts, in the fact that he didn't give up trying to find me.

“Hey, Joseph,” I started. “Why are the other droids in their cloaking modes?” I asked.

“No idea. I guess they see those other life forms . . . which are . . . also ponies?” He began to scratch his head in complete confusion. What he also noticed was the lavender pony. This made him more confused than before. “Did they make another TWI-31 or something?” he questioned once again.

“I'll explain later. Tell the droids to uncloak now. The ponies are not a threat to them,” I told him as he nodded and did an about face to face the cloaked droids.

“Alright guys. You can disable your cloaking devices! They're friendly,” commanded Joseph.

All the droids uncloaked themselves for me to see them. Seems TIA-98 and LULU-95 were also here. I heard sudden gasps from right behind me. I turned myself around to notice the royal guards were bowing to both the dark blue and white droids. Why were they bowing to them? Unless the droids looked like . . . ah! Of course! They must think these are the real rulers of Equestria. That would explain a lot now.

“You guys do know they’re not the real rulers of this country, right? They're droids just like me.” Could any of them even notice the black markings on the droids? They're not that small. They're very visible to look at. All droids have those markings. That's just how we were built.

“Twilight,” I addressed, “tell them those are droids. Their names are TIA-98 and LULU-95. Same goes for the rest of the droids. They must think those two are the rulers of your country.” She nodded and asked the guards to stop bowing. They acknowledged her request.

“So, what exactly are we supposed to do?” questioned Joseph.

“There are some royal carriages that are coming to pick us up. I asked the guards when I was talking to them about RD-115 and her friends,” Twilight told him. I actually noticed Twilight was fascinated by Joseph. He was taller than any of the ponies here. He was at least 5’8”, so he was as tall as TIA-98. I think Twilight might have a lot of questions to ask him.

A few minutes have passed where all of us continued walking. Roughly eight minutes until I saw what looked like golden carriages coming out of the sky to land right in front of us.

“This must be our transportation,” said Joseph. He looked stunned to see that this wasn't like going on an airplane to go to another place in the world he once lived in. He was in a whole new world. He knows this feels like he went back in time before modern technology was developed by humans. He's in the Stone Age. The only thing that makes us different is we're more advanced than the inhabitants of this world they call Equestria. Joseph got into one of the carriages and so did the rest of the Royal guards, then Twilight's friends, and some of the droids. Most of them decided to provide air support, while some got into the carriages. That, and they most of them went back to cloaking mode. I also decided to get into the carriage that Joseph went into and so did my friends. Twilight actually decided to come into my carriage to start a conversation with me and Joseph. Even TWI-31 got into the carriage we were in. This was going to be one heck of a talk.

All the carriages took off and we were on our way to Canterlot Castle.