Midnight Nebula

When she entered the little kitchen and greeted the green earth pony with a pizza slice as his cutie mark with, "Hey you..", she was met with a passing wave acknowledging her. Hugz had been expecting her; she was only pony other than his sister that he allowed in here. This.. this was his masterpiece. An oven with rollers powered by a single red and orange crystal enchanted by an old unicorn spell cast by the previous owner pushed the hoof-tossed works of art through the heat, emitting a tantilizing aroma of oregano and garlic accompanied by melted cheeses. A pizza emerged from the warmth, and Hugz quickly placed it into a box. Nebula spoke quickly with a grin, "Would you like for me to deliver that for you?" She knew that her ability to fly would make for a fast delivery and perhaps a good tip, but Hugz declined with his own grin.

"I'm glad you came by today; I had hoped you would. I've been working on something that I'm pretty sure you will think is cool." Nebula's ears perked. 'What had he been working on and why was this the first time she'd heard about it?', she contemplated as Hugz slipped behind the oven. What he drew out of the corner was not anything she was expecting. He set the metallic filly-sized pony-shaped thing upright and smiled excitedly, "Do you remember that little mechanic's shop that went out of business a while back?" Nebula vaguely recalled the little building owned by a unicorn inventor that had moved down to Ponyville to set up shop. He had some neat contraptions, but his prices were way too high for this small area. He ended up going to Manehattan to sell his ideas to a manufacturer, or so she had heard, and he had left the building empty except for some machinery and a few unfinished projects. Hugz, seeing the recognition in his friend's face, continued, "I found this little guy in a heap as I was looking for some parts to repair my oven if it ever needs it." Hugz had always been good with his hooves and could modify nearly any unicorn mechanism for the use of an earth pony, but this.. "What in the Equestrian woods is that?!", Nebula started to blurt out, but before Nebula could finish asking, Hugz reached up with a hoof tenderly and pressed a button on one of the many copper lines that ran all along the pony-thing she was seeing. After a small whirr, there was movement in the thing's face, and Nebula, having been startled, shook off the moment of shock that had taken her. The eyes of the thing had sprung to life, scanning the kitchen. "Enter your destination," a childish monotone voice stated. Nebula realized then that Hugz had taken the robotic program and added an EPS (Equestrian Positioning System) to it. She had read about these in a futuristic science fiction novel once, but didn't think it was a thing. "Oh, it's a thing!", Hugz said as if reading her thoughts. Hugz then spoke directly into the microphone on the robot's nose. "Far Cry's apartment". The robot immediately responded, "Searching: Fur Dyes Department". With that, Nebula began laughing harder than she had in weeks. Hugz blushed and giggled slightly, sheepishly admitting, "It still has some kinks to be worked out, but I already programmed a name for it." The robot's voice sounded again, "No Location Found. Please try again." Hugz added, "I'm calling him 'Tiny'."

The robot retorted at the sound of the name, "Helping Hooves Ready. Please state your destination." Nebula had a hard time recovering; laughing that hard on an empty stomach made her lightheaded, but it was worth it. Slowly and with anunciating determination, Hugz repeated to the machine, "Far... Cry's... Apartment." With a slight whirring, the robot replied, "Searching: Far Cry's Apartment... Location Found. Would you like to visit this location? Say 'yes' if you would like to follow me. Say 'no' if you would like to begin a new search." Placing the freshly made pizza on the back of the robot, Hugz said "Yes" in a dutiful tone. Two wing-shaped metal flaps rose from the robot's sides, and fans underneath began to spin, lifting the small ponybot thing off the ground. The fans rotated slightly, and soon the robot was gliding slowly out the back door. "Now that's epic!", Nebula said. Hugz then asked her to follow the bot just to ensure it did find its way to deliver the pizza and promised a fresh pie of cheesy goodness would be waiting for her when she returned. Nebula agreed, put the money pouch around her neck, and was soon off following this thing that fascinated her so. She knew the destination; Far Cry- a gray unicorn artist- had been Hugz's longest-standing and most loyal customer. Although a loner to a fault, he did tip well, and Nebula had discovered his love of opera music one night while delivering a pizza, having heard him singing rather excitedly through his cracked window. She thought about this for a few moments, but as she followed the robot inspecting the awesome mechanics at work, she couldn't think about anything else.

Winding through the nearly empty streets on the outskirts of town, Midnight Nebula observed the little mechanical wonder. "How did he manage to do this?", she wondered. As she thought about all of the things that Hugz had to have done to get this working, she failed to notice that they were approaching the apartments and almost ran into the back of the thing when the robot's fans suddenly stopped about 20 feet from it's destination. The monotone voice announced, "Destination reached. Please enter new search or say, 'Return' to go back to the first point of origin." Nebula rolled her eyes in slight frustration; she understood now why Hugz wanted her to go along. Although the robot did take the delivery to the correct location, she still would have to be the one to deliver the food. "Return.", she instructed the machine as she took the pizza. "Hugz, you'll really have to fix that.." she thought out loud as she carried the box to the door. The robot's fan had already started spinning again, and it hovered along as it began to make its way back to the hut.

Nebula knocked and waited as she heard a voice cry out, "Just a minute..."