New Loyalty

This is just new to me. Seriously, I mean it. Here I am, a U.S. Marine that was investigating what was going on in Area 51, my friends die to NMM-13, and I'm here in a world of talking ponies!

This I cannot believe.

Life really does exist out there. And I'm the first human to be on a different planet that contains life. I'm not sure what my drill sergeant would think about me right now if he were here. Chances are he would say, "You discovered one of the biggest mysteries that scientists have been trying to find for all these decades!" I'm positive that's what he would say to me.

This planet. If feels . . . different. The air is clean. Far cleaner than what Earth's air is. I honestly don't think any other humans will find this planet anytime soon. Sure, we do have spaceships, but they're nowhere near good enough to go outside our galaxy. Almost, but not yet. The technology is still being worked on to this day.

This lavender pony was asking all sorts of questions about who I am and where I come from. It was even telling me about why I'm in this suit. I'm not fully in my heavy armor. I and the rest of my friends were issued standard armor suits. The reason for that is because our commanding officer didn't think we needed to go into, how would you say it? "Full metal jacket?" Yeah, I really wish our commander gave us our heavy armor now. I wouldn't have been the only survivor of my whole team.

Buy, hey, I can't complain forever, you know?

RD-115 told me the lavender pony's name was "Twilight Sparkle." Nice name for her. Funny. The droid is called TWI-31. Just add in the other letters to her name and you'll have Twilight Sparkle. It seems Twilight was also interested in TWI-31. I mean, they're both identical! Literally! Same coat color, eye color, mane color, voice, and cutie mark! This was making me have more questions now.

"So, Joseph. What are you wearing exactly?" asked Twilight.

"This is just my uniform. I'm part of my country's armed forces, the United States Marine Corp. Best soldiers in the world I come from. The armor that you see that's part of my uniform is supposed to help keep me safe from incoming enemy fire on the battlefield," I sighed. "Well, it's supposed to protect me. I learned that the hard way when my entire team that I was with to investigate why Area 51, which is a military base in my country, was wiped out by an android that goes by the name NMM-13." She let out a small gasp when I said my team was killed by a droid in Area 51.

"That's horrible!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah. I know it is. At least I survived. It was also thanks to TWI-31, who's here with us; she got me out along with some of her friends from our world."

"He's right. Without me and a few of my droid friends, he and I would've never gotten outta there intact. Chances are I would've been turned into a slave to do NMM-13's bidding or been terminated.  And Joseph would've been killed like all his other friends." TWI-31 was right about that.

"I was wondering: why do you look identical to me, TWI-31?" asked Twilight.

"That I'm not sure of. That's what gets me. But I do have a theory of why I look like you," she began to talk about her theory. "The world that we come from could possibly be connected to this world. Maybe not one hundred percent, but that's what I think. Same would go for RD-115. She looks identical to the cyan pony you call Rainbow Dash. There are other droids that also look like your other friends. AJ-440, PP-770, RY-900, and FY-200. I'm also guessing the reason the guards were bowing to TIA-98 and LULU-95 was because they must look identical to the rulers of Equestria. I'm also sure the other droids who are with us are identical to the other ponies that live in this world." Man. This droid seems to be knowing what she's talking about.

"Wait, what happened to those four droids you were talking about that look like my friends?" asked Twilight.

"I . . . I don't know. We lost contact with them during NMM-13's attack against the humans in the base. I'm not sure if they have been terminated or if they are still online. I've been worried about them for quite a long time. I haven’t gotten a single message from them since coming to your world, Twilight Sparkle." She had a sad expression on her face. Poor droid. She doesn't know if her friends are even online or not. These droids . . . they seem to show emotions, like how humans act. I wonder why though?

"Hey, you don't have to feel sad, TWI-31. At least you’ve still got me and some of our friends here," RD-115 wrapped her left foreleg behind TWI-31's back. "I understand that we've lost a lot in our world, but we're not gonna leave any droid behind. That I promise." She put on a determined face so TWI-31 could feel well.

"You remind me of Rainbow Dash. The way you talk, you seem to be turning more and more into her," said Twilight. "And you, TWI-31, seem to also act like me. I care about my friends the same way. We've always stuck together no matter what happens."

Hmm . . . this is interesting. The droids are acting just like how these ponies are. Very interesting. I wonder, what would the engineers and the scientists think about this? Well, they aren't alive. I think.

We were still continuing to talk about how our worlds are different. I asked Twilight if there has ever been wars in this world. She tells me that Equestria hasn't been in war for over a thousand years! How's that even possible? How can you have peace for that long?

War spreads like a disease. You can't control it. It's like an animal that's gone rogue and it can't be killed so easily. Hundreds of millions of people have died in my world. Many didn't have to die in the wars my country had faced since it came into existence.

If only there was a way to end war, without it ending mankind.

I'm guessing power hasn't fully corrupted this country. The rulers must know the limits of power. With great power comes with great responsibility. Power mustn't be abused or it will destroy you. It can do terrible things to a mind; it can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity.

Twilight wants to know more about the weapons I'm carrying on me. I tell her the weapons can kill people. I told her that my weapons are deadly upon impact. My ACR-321, which is the new gun from the older ACR gun, can do ten times more damage than what my other guns can do. You have the grenade launcher, thermal vision; with the red dot sight to make an accurate kill, and it's easy to hold and shoot. All the weapons are far lighter than what they were twenty or thirty years ago. It's like picking up a bird's feather.

Twilight understands what my weapons can really do if I were to simply fire at a moving object. I tell her that war is hell. War is not fun. I lost a few friends in war. Do I still remember their screams for help? I do. Their screams are burned into my head. I can't erase them from my memory. Twilight wanted to see what I've been through in my past battles; I can still remember to this day.

She used her . . . ummm, horn, and it radiated a light purple color. She slowly touched the middle of my forehead and all I could remember was blacking out.

I woke up in three minutes to find out that Twilight was crying. Crying . . . to see what was in my vault of memories that I can never erase again. Now she has seen what I do everyday in my life in my world.

"Joesph . . ." Twilight had her eyes closed. "It . . . it was horrible. I saw children crying for their moms and dads, ruins of towns, villages, and cities, mass graves of bodies in pits, the sounds of what you call 'guns' being fired from all sides, blood everywhere you went, and the friends you knew for so long dying alongside you." She was crying a river of tears.

I decided to sit right next to her to comfort her.

"Hey," I started. "You don't have to worry about what you saw. That's in my world I come from. Your world doesn't do that type of mass destruction to its own people. I went through hell, but those memories haven't broken me, yet. I can understand that that was a new experience you saw from within me. Many of the friends I knew that you saw died for a cause. That cause was to keep my country and its people from being killed on their soil," I explained to her.

"Never . . . had I seen that much destruction in my life. My mentor, Princess Celestia, wouldn't want any of her ponies to go through what you went though," she sniffled.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay, Twilight?" I asked her.

"Y-yeah, I'll be okay," she stuttered.

A few minutes had passed, and we looked forward to see that we are finally reaching the capital of Equestria: Canterlot. The castle was more beautiful than how castles were designed in Europe. The castle itself looks like it was built on the side of the mountain. I don't how the builders thought of having the capital of their country be part of the mountain. I think it was terribly planned out. All it would take would be a big earthquake to destroy the whole castle and anyone who was there would've died. It should've have been built on the ground. But, hey, this ain't the world I was born in.

I could see what looked like shopping malls, villages, and ponies chattering amongst themselves, and just living a good life in the capital. The carriage that we were in landed back on the ground.

I could tell we weren't in front of the castle. I won't complain. Having a good walk, and seeing the place is fine with me. The only thing I have a problem with would be when I'm walking in the streets. These ponies have never seen a human, I'm presuming.

"Twilight, how will these ponies look at me? They'll probably be running to the hills when they see me. Plus, I have these weapons on me. And my combat suit might be intimidating."

"Don't worry. Once they see you with me, they'll probably not scream but be curious about you.  Same would go with the rest of the droids." She gave me an assuring smile.

"I might as well be the ambassador to your leaders, Twilight. I hope they don't think I'm threat to their people." I just felt like the back of my head was telling me to not worry. Sure. I've been so worried when it came to battles, but this is not like a human meeting with another human to have diplomatic relations with my country and his country. It's a human making a diplomatic relation with the monarchs that I believe are horses that run this country.

"Just relax. The guards will make sure nothing bad will happen to you. Plus, the droids aren't feeling worried about anything. You shouldn't worry even a little bit," said Twilight.

"Well, if you say so." I opened the door of the carriage to place both my feet on the ground. So far so good. The ponies haven't looked at me just yet.

The other carriages came in and made safe landings back on the ground. The guards got out and so did the droids. Almost all the droids uncloaked. The only ones I could tell that were still invisible were TIA-98 and LULU-95. I'm guessing RD-115 or both of them decided to wait ‘til they show themselves to the princesses. I'm pretty sure that part is not going to end well.

I holstered my assault rifle on my chest plate so I would not have to carry it around all the time. The guards seem to have encircled us to keep anyone from getting close to us. I feel like we're the most important figures in Equestria.

I finally could see that citizens of Canterlot were looking at me. Some were just staring at me with wide eyes. A few looked like they saw a ghost. Many of them were running away from me. What did I expect? It wasn't like they were going to come and shake my hand.

I could tell that I was taller than any of them, even the guards and Twilight's friends. What got their attention more was noticing RD-115 and TWI-31. A few of them were putting a hoof under their chins seeing two Rainbow Dash's and two Twilight's. I wonder if they could even see the markings on them? I can understand that you wouldn't be able to see the markings from a far away distance, but I'm sure they could see them.

The majority of the ponies were looking at me more than the droids. I actually made a smile to show them I wasn't a dangerous creature they never seen before. That only provoked them even more. It wasn't going to be easy like I expected. I had to show them that I was good, but that would have the wait for some other time, after I meet their leaders.

After a few minutes of walking in the streets, we finally made it to front of the building that housed the leaders of Equestria.

There were two guards on both sides of the doors and both opened the doors for me and the rest to get into the castle.

I say, the hallway was beautiful to walk in. You're talking about beautiful paintings, statues of what I’m guessing are the princesses, roman-style architect, marble pillars throughout the castle hallways, it was just so beautiful to look at what the castle was from the inside. Looks like the White House has some serious competition now. This place was rich, I know that much.

There were two doors that looked like it would show where the leaders worked in. The left side of the door was white and light orange that showed the sun and a white horse showing how powerful it was, while the right door side was dark blue that showed that of a crescent moon with a dark blue horse flying into the night sky peacefully. I didn't hear anything so far from the other side of the door.

I placed my hands on the knobs of the doors and turned them to move into the next room.

Everything seem to be going as planned.

Holy smokes!!! This place is huge! It looks like this place is the size of a maybe a football field. Why this long is beyond my knowledge.

There were a few guards on both sides of the room. Not even turning their heads to see me, the droids, Twilight's friends, or the rest of the guards. I looked straight in front of me to see the rulers of Equestria. They weren't looking at us, they were talking to one another. They must be having a normal conversation, I think. The white horse who was on the left seemed to have a golden necklace with a purple diamond at the center of it, a crown on top of her head, her mane and tail were defying the laws of gravity, had the sun as her cutie mark, plus wings and a horn. She had everything identical to the TIA-98 droid. When I mean everything, I mean everything. So did the dark blue horse. Dark blue mane and tail; which was also defying the laws of gravity, had the cutie mark of the crescent moon with black coloring on it, wings, horn, black crown on her head, and a black necklace that had the crescent moon on it, and dark blue eyes. She was a little smaller than the white horse. I just couldn't believe those two are identical to the two droids.

The guards on our sides saw us; they tensed up. They weren't thinking of attacking us since the other guards who are with us were giving them the 'don't even think about it' expression. That's good to know; they have been trained well when it comes to seeing an alien from another planet.

I halted about ten feet from where the horses were. I noticed that the dark blue one now had her left eye looking right at me.

Why do I have the feeling that something is about to happen to me? I just feel myself just trying to breathe in and out.

Making sure that nothing WOULD happen to me, I did what I think I must do: I bowed to both the princesses.

I'm making sure that I stand my ground. I got back up to see that the dark blue horse and the white horse were looking at me. I could tell that the dark blue one seemed to have its jaw dropped almost to the floor. It seems these horses and, of course the ponies, seem to share the expressions a human would have.

It was awfully quiet in the room we were in. I didn't even hear a sound from anyone in this room. The droids did not respond; the guards did not either, nor has Twilight or her friends said anything.

Okay, I'm sure they think something is not gonna go well from here on. Tell me, how would you feel if you were in my shoes facing possibly the most powerful beings of this world? Sure, I'm a soldier that was made for war, but nothing was crazier than this.

It feels like five minutes have passed now. Good lord. It feels like this place has become an absolute ghost town now, with me in here. I was still not moving. I was waiting for a response from them.

Seconds later, Twilight finally spoke.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I did what you told me," she pointed her hoof at me. "This is not the only one who's with us. There are more that come from a whole different world that we live in." The other droids have moved up next to me. Still, the TIA-98 nor the LULU-95 exposed themselves. When will RD-115 get them to uncloak?

"You might be wondering why most of these other 'droids' look like other ponies that are from here. RD-115 will explain how they all came to our world."

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This is gonna be so easy! I finally met the princesses of Equestria! As Twilight has said, I must explain to the princesses how the droids, Joseph, and I got here.

I took a few hoof steps to make sure that they knew that I was willing to tell them everything.

I stopped just about four feet from where they were still sitting.

"Greetings, Princesses," I started. "My name is RD-115. I'm a droid that was created in Area 51, Which is a military base in the country that I was created in. The country that I'm from, along with the rest of the droids and the human, is called the United States of America; 50 states with a federal government controlling them. The capital of my country is known as Washington, D.C. It's also known as the District of Columbia."

The Princesses were still not responding to me.

"Hey, is everything alright, Your Highnesses?" I asked them.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna seemed to be starstruck, noticing that I was identical to Rainbow Dash. Over the next several seconds, they both snapped out of their trance.

"Hello, RD-115," Princess Celestia greeted. "Welcome to our world that we call Equestria. Sorry for not responding to you. We're just surprised to see that you look just like Rainbow Dash." Celestia seemed to show signs of worry about me. Almost as if she and Luna were . . . afraid of who I was.

"I sense that you are both worried about who we are." That ended up causing both of them to flinch. I knew it.

"How does thou know we are worried about thee?" said Luna.

"Your levels of worry are at 70% and increasing. We can read your emotions. We can detect if you are angry, sad, depressed; we know if you are telling the truth, when you are lying, etc. We can even tell if you are turning your head to the other direction to not look at us, or if you are starting to move your eyes the other way to not look at us." I could tell that got both of them.

"We can also tell when you're lying when your eyes dilate. In the world we come from, we always make sure that people always tell the truth. It's in order to make sure that no one gets away with anything," I firmly said. "We have facial recognition software where we can have a positive identification of any individual, criminal databases where we can look to see who has committed crimes in the past, voice control software to detect if that's the person or pony that has access to rooms and classified information about military operations, access codes, security footage, everything; and scan their DNA to see if that's the person or pony we were after and not a doppelganger." That made them even more surprised than before.

"We were downloaded with all languages that humans still speak in. No matter what language they speak, we can translate it for our military to look at. Even old languages that have long been forgotten we were downloaded with. You, Princess Luna, seem to speak in old English. Which that language is not used anymore. The country that I told both of you uses modern English. Which is the language that I'm talking in right now to both of you," I continued. "I can speak in old English if it's more comfortable for you, Princess Luna," I told her.

"For thou mustn't need to speak in the language we speak," answered Luna.

"As you wish, Your Highness," I replied.

"Why have you come to our world, RD-115?" asked Celestia.

"Ma'am, this was accidental. I wasn't supposed to come to your world you live in," I firmly told both of them. "I was helping a few scientists try to fix a teleportation device that was supposed to help transport soldiers to all parts of the world I was created in. It was supposed to help cut the costs of having to use 'airplanes' and 'vehicles' that are used by our advanced civilization. Fortunately, it did not go as planned, like I thought myself."

"What happened?" asked Luna.

"By the time I fully fixed the device, I also wanted to see where I would have been teleported to, but a rogue droid that goes by NMM-13, had somehow become self aware of her surroundings and killed every human that was in the base I was in." The sudden shock on their faces told me they knew I was being serious about what happened in my world. "The scientists who were with me ordered me to go into the portal for me to not die at the hooves of NMM-13. I acknowledged them and did what I had to do. Instead of being teleported to say, outside Area 51, I was transported to this world somehow. How it happened, is beyond my knowledge." Both the Princesses seemed to understand what I went through to come here.

"We want to know who is NMM-13," stated Luna.

"Are you sure, Princess?" I asked her.

"We want to know who she is to make sure she is not a threat to our little ponies," answered Princess Celestia.

"Okay. We are able to shape-shift to whomever we want to. She is very intimidating. She is about your height, Princess Celestia; maybe 3 inches below you. Black metal coat, draconic eyes that are blue, wings, horn, secondary armor for her hooves, chest, and head; there’s a crescent moon at the center of her chest plate, and her mane and tail are like yours, Princess Luna. The other thing is her cutie mark is a splash of purple and a light blue crescent moon on both flanks." As I finished every detail of who NMM-13 was, everypony, not the droids or Joseph, gasped. The Princesses seem to have more fear in their eyes.

"Th-that's . . . Ni-" Luna didn't even get a chance to complete her sentence as a bright flash of light swallowed me up for me to turn into NMM-13. My height increased, horn was fully formed, my metal coat turned from cyan blue to midnight, my mane and tail grew and changed from my rainbow color to dark blue and purple, my cutie mark changed to the splash of purple and the light blue crescent moon, secondary blue armor was created, my eyes turned to that of a dragon, along with the color, and my wings had fully grown now.

The light dissipated and slowly everyone could see who the mare droid looked like.

I opened my eyes to see that Princess Celestia and Luna had fear in their eyes and were also shakened by my new appearance. I turned around to also notice that Twilight and her friends were shaking from head to hooves. Even the guards themselves showed signs of absolute fear on their faces.

"As you can see," I spoke in the voice of NMM-113. "I turned myself into NMM-13: the Droid of Nightmares." My voice boomed throughout the castle.

I started to chuckle to myself for no reason. I couldn't help myself. I felt so alive! All the power that I was now in control of was so good. It felt like I could just take on the whole world if I wanted to.

I turned back around to see that Luna was not showing fear anymore. She looked at me straight in the eyes. Her eyes were raging fury. Not the fury that you would expect, but full blown rage. Her anger levels were increasing every second. Her power was also increasing by tenfold.

This isn't going to end well.

"YOU WILL NOT HURT MY FRIENDS THAT I CARE SO MUCH ABOUT!?!?" Her voice was loud just like mine. It was so loud that the windows in the room shattered upon her speaking.

I . . . I think I made the stupidest decision turning into NMM-13. I have to calm her down. The only way for me to do that is to use my stun blaster to knock her out.

She got off her throne and just came charging right at me. Her eyes were as white as lightning striking a tree; only to see the tree catch on fire and fall over on its side. That's what it looked like.

"LUNA!" shouted Celestia.

That didn't even stop her. Luna was still coming at me at full force.

I did not move from where I was standing. I waited until she was only two feet from where I stood.

She fired a beam of white energy at me. The beam impacted me, but it didn't even put a single dent in my metal coat. What I did feel was a sudden surge of power coming into my systems. It was like the energy she used on me transferred into power for me to become more powerful than before.

I . . . could feel my weapons being transformed. Her energy has only made me become more lethal. All my systems went beyond maximum power.

I looked straight at Luna. I didn't show any signs of fear. I had to stop her before she hurt herself and everypony in this room.

I fired up my horn and locked onto Luna.

Advanced targeting system has been activated.

Target spotted.

Stun blaster is now operational.

Fire when ready, RD-115.

I fired up my horn and blasted Luna with the stun blaster.

It was a success.

Luna fell to the ground just inches from where I stood. My stun blaster might have been a little too powerful. Due to her using her horn's power, it made a direct impact on me, which made my stun blaster far more powerful. She might take longer to fully awake from being stunned by me.

I scanned her heart rate to check that it was beating normally. No sign of heart problems. Breathing was normal. I even made sure her brain waves were normal, too. No sign of any problems she would have when waking up.

I put my hoof on her head and just sighed deeply.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," I muttered to myself. "I didn't know you were going to react like this, Princess Luna. Please forgive me." I knew she didn't hear me, of course. I did this to her. And I didn't mean for THIS to even happen.

"SISTER!" Princess Celestia galloped to where her sister lay on the floor sleeping. The look of shock was visible for me to see. She shook her sister to wake up. She did not respond.

"Relax, Princess Celestia. I didn't do anything to your sister. I merely used my stun blaster to knock her out." I placed my hoof on her shoulder. "She'll wake up in an hour or less. I'm sorry that this had to happen. I didn't expect her to react this way when turning into NMM-13. I hold myself accountable, Celestia." I had guilt come to me for doing this. Much guilt indeed.

I should've just showed them a hologram of NMM-13, not shape shift into her.

"Celestia, I know that you hate me for doing this to your sister," I sighed while I lowered my head to look at Luna still unconscious. "When a droid turns into another droid or into another organism, we end up developing the personality of that creature. And it seems that I developed NMM-13's personality. I'm sorry, Your Highness. I jus-" I was cut off by Celestia's hoof being  placed on my mouth.

"RD-115, we need to talk." Celestia didn't even have any emotion in her voice.

Before I could get a chance to even reply back, both me and Celestia were teleported outside of Canterlot Castle.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed.

"RD-115!!" NG-18 shouted.

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"Celestia, where are we?" I asked.

"We're in a field that's far away from Canterlot. We must talk about this here, not at Canterlot," she replied.

"It's about your sister, right?" She nodded.

"Let me tell you what happened a thousand years ago." We both walked in the field to discuss what must be very important for me to understand.

"A thousand years ago, Luna and I were the best of sisters and the best of friends. We are to this day," she signed. "My sister back then did not understand what it meant to raise the moon and then lower it for me to raise the sun for my little ponies to enjoy the warmth of the light. She was still young. I was the elder sister and she was still young like a filly. Almost, but not quite." She was waiting for me to respond to ask her about her sister.

"What happened, Celestia?"

"She wanted the ponies of our kingdom to enjoy her night. It didn't happen like you would picture it. She noticed that the ponies were all in their houses sleeping and not going outside to enjoy her beautiful night. She saw the ponies enjoy the warmth of the sun I brought to them every morning. She felt heartbroken, RD-115, to see that the ponies appreciated the warmth of the sun and not her beautiful night." She held her head down.

"Then what happened later in the future, Celestia?" She raised her head up and looked at me.

"She became violently angry at me. I still remember it like it happened yesterday. She refused to lower the moon for me to raise the sun. What happened after that was where I almost fell in complete sorrow. Her inner-ego took control of her and turned her into a demon. That demon called herself 'Nightmare Moon'." Whoa. Didn't expect that to happen.

"I . . . had no choice but to use the Elements of Harmony on her to lock her in the moon for a thousand years," she continued, but started to tear up. "If I d-didn't use the Elements to send her in moon, she would have locked me in t-the sun and plunge Equestria into everlasting darkness. I . . . I had to do it! If I didn't, this place would have already been set in darkness for all eternity. My little ponies would be forced to obey my corrupted sister for the rest of their lives . . ." Tears started to stream down her face.

Now I’ve seen everything. This form I'm in is the corrupted form of Celestia's sister, Luna. The puzzle itself has finally been solved. Now I understand why Luna attacked me. She thought I was in a disguise where I would take control of her and bring eternal night to Equestria.

"Celestia, I'm sorry to hear that." I wrapped my forearms around her neck and wrapped my wings around her to comfort her. She collapsed to the ground, crying into my metal coat, crying her eyes out to remember what happened a thousand years ago.

"I had . . . I had to do it for Equestria," she continued to cry. "There . . . was . . .*sniff* no other way to save her."

"Let it all out, Celestia. I'm here to comfort you." She continued to cry. So . . . this is how it feels to care for somepony you care for so dearly. The pain and sorrow that came off of Celestia . . . was being put into me. The feelings for her sister were strong. Very strong. It wasn't like that of NG-18 that cared about me. Her emotions were stronger than his.

Tears began to slide down my face. I now understand. I understand how it feels to sacrifice something you love so much. Celestia cares for her little sister. More than anything in Equestria.

We both cried for a few minutes. We didn't let go of one another. She still needed somepony to be at her side. And I'm the one she needs now.

"It's gonna be okay, Princess Celestia. It's gonna be okay. I'm here for you like any other pony in your land. Look at me, Celestia. I'm not this mare that you speak of. All though I'm in her body form and have the voice of her, I'm not Nightmare Moon. If she ever were to return, I'll be sure to teach her a lesson for messing with your sister and your ponies. And you can count on it." She just looked at me for a few seconds and started to tear up again. She ended up crying in my chest once more.

This must be more serious than I thought. This 'Nightmare Moon' must be the one figure that makes Celestia's heart ache in pain. I felt anger build up in me. If this mare comes back to hurt Celestia, Luna, or anypony in Equestria, I'll tear her up into a million pieces. And I will not be merciful while I'm at it.

"Get yourself together, Celestia. It's time we go back to Canterlot Castle. Everypony is worried about you and me. We need t-" my sentence was cut off when strange noises came from where we are standing. These noises . . . they sounded like animals.

There were multiple noises everywhere. It didn't sound like two voices coming from where we were. I scanned the entire field to see where the voices were coming from.

I detected scores of hostile targets coming to our position. What was odd about this was the hostiles were not on the ground. I know my detecting device is not malfunctioning. All my systems were clear. No glitch in the system.

Unless . . .

I felt something grab my hoof from under the ground.

I look down to notice a hoof, which was not Celestia's, latch onto me.

What. The. Buck??? I fired my plasma cannon at the hooves, which went back underground real quick.

Then I looked back to up to Celestia and told her, "Your Highness, you must leave now. It seems hostile targets have started to attack our position right under our hooves." She didn't even have time to respond when two hooves from underground grabbed onto her forelegs with enough strength to force her to drop to the ground.

"NO!!!" I activated my laser cannon and shot both the hooves that grabbed onto Celestia. Something did not look right. The hooves that I fired at were decayed. The flesh itself was rotten.

It's almost as if . . . No. That's impossible. You can't bring the dead back to life! Can you?

"Celestia, it seems we might need one another for this fight. I believe we must stop these 'undead' ponies from harming the living," I continued. "If we don't, then your ponies will die." I could tell she was still processing the information I have given her.

She nodded at me. "Let us fight the dead, then," she replied with a smile on her face.

She’s got my back and I’ve got her back. Time to teach these zombies a lesson: Never mess with a droid and Equestria's most powerful leader.

Game on.

We waited for more of the dead to rise from the ground for us to kill.

What caught my eyes were the majority of the zombies were that of Royal guards and Lunar guards. Even more odd about them was most of their eyes were glowing purple, yellow, and red. I could actually see some of their bones that weren't covered by their flesh. Blood slowly coming out of their mouths; it made me think they were hungry to eat the flesh of the living. Their sounds of blood thirst were high. They craved for it.

These things had no soul. Not anymore.

The only thing they want is flesh. Nothing more.

I know they weren't coming to kill me. Since I'm not in the flesh. They were after the one that was behind me: Celestia.

"On the count of three, we attack. Don't let them bite you, Celestia. I have have a bad feeling if they bite you, you'll turn into those flesh eating monsters." She takes in a deep breath and exhales.

"One, two . . . THREE!!!" I charged at the zombies full force, knocking down a few and firing missiles at them. I grabbed one and ripped its head right off, then threw it twenty feet in the air.

"How are you doing, Celestia?!"

"I'm doing my best to fight them!! There's too many!!" I turned around to notice that she was being surrounded by them. She was firing bolts of magic at the zombies; some of their legs were torn right off their body. Her bolts of magic also hit some of their heads; making them drop dead.

I think she just found the way to kill them.

"Celestia! Aim for the head. They seems to go down if you hit the head! Maybe sever the spine from the head; that might also kill them!" Time to call in the big guns!

I activated my machine guns to rip these zombies to shreds, one by one. The zombies were dropping dead. Their blood splattered everywhere on the ground. Bone marrow was present, too.

I'm starting to like this. Seeing my enemies die at the hooves of a droid! Wait, I'm starting to act more and more like NMM-13! I do not want to end up killing living beings. But I'm not killing the living. I'm killing the undead.

"Celestia! Look out!" One of the zombies was about to pounce on her from behind. Lucky for me I grabbed it before it could even get a chance to bite Celestia on her back.

This one was struggling to break free from my hooves. It kept biting me, but it couldn't even penetrate my metal hooves. These things really have no brains.

Without hesitating,  I blasted it with my plasma cannon and it stopped moving. Yep. Another one bites the dust.

I detected at least ten more coming toward us.

Celestia herself was starting to get tired. I assumed she was nearly depleted of her magic. Only a small amount of magic was still inside of her.

She can't go on like this. I can still fight these creatures of the dead! I will not allow the Princess of the Sun die on her land! Buck no!

"Celestia, let me take care of the remaining zombies. Rest for now. You'll be okay." She was breathing slowly, but gave a nod and laid on the ground to rest.

'Alright, alright. I have a few zombies coming from upfront and the rest seem to becoming from behind. I must defend Celestia by all means necessary!' The zombies were galloping like no tomorrow. They were determined to kill the goddess of the sun. They'll have to fight me to kill her!

'Now to really put these zombies out of commission.' I fired both my plasma cannon and laser cannon at the zombies. Five on my left and five on my right. Plasma cannon aimed at the right, laser cannon aimed at the left.

The zombies were burned to a crisp. There was nothing but blackness that remained of them.

I inhaled and exhaled to know that Celestia was . . . hold on one bucking second.

Why am I breathing?? This is not part of how I was created. Droids do not breathe! Why am I breathing? Is it when I'm in serious combat? But that wouldn't make sense. Droids are incapable of breathing like living organisms.

Hmmmm . . . this project seems to be to very top secret. I need to find out more about this project. Maybe Twilight knows about this. She did look at what I was from the inside. Maybe not everything. She might've just looked at the circuits and weapons.

But then there's Luna's magic that she used to attack me in Canterlot. When it hit me . . . my weapons did start to turn more deadly than what they were when I came online.

I could smell everything around me. The smoke from my weapons, the flesh of the zombies Celestia and I killed, and . . . I could feel the air blowing around me.

This world.

Is it starting to change who I am? Could the longer I stay here, the more I develop the feelings like the ponies in this world have? It happened to NG-18. This could affect the rest of the droids. Maybe Joseph won't change. He's a living oragasm. Not a droid like us.

Shaking my head, I turned around and got to where Celestia was still laying on the ground. She was knocked out. Her eyes were closed but was still breathing.

Looks like I have to carry her back to Canterlot Castle.

I grabbed her by the sides and placed her on my back. She wasn't that heavy. I understand she's a full grown mare but it was easy for me to put her on my back. I'm actually surprised she did not wake up. I might have to explain to Twilight and her friends about what happened here.

When will this shape shifting mode start to dissipate? I kind of miss being in my own form. I need more information about this 'Nightmare Moon'. Perhaps Twilight can tell me more about her.

I didn't want to fly due to me carrying Celestia on my back. I decided to just walk back to Canterlot. And I know it'll take a while to get there.

'Luna, I hope you're okay,' I said to myself. 'And I hope you'll forgive me for what happened here.'