Epsilon-6

• - -Twilight- - -

Twilight jumped back in surprise when the robot slumped forward, its side panel closing with a slam. Only after watching it for a few seconds did she finally relax slightly, it seemed to have shut down, though why this had happened was something she was unsure about.

As she attempted to calm herself down, she heard a clatter behind her. Whirling around, she found Spike standing in the doorway, a shattered mug on the ground in front of him.

“Spike? Um... why are you here?” Twilight asked, her brain more focused on trying to find a way out of the situation that had just arisen to realize that the mug once had her coffee in it.

“Twi, is that pony made out of... metal?” He asked, eyes locked on the mass of metal slumped over in front of Twilight.

“Yes, it a... statue! Yes. That's all it is, now why don't you go and take the day off. I'll get this cleaned up.” She said quickly as she tried to push Spike out of the doorway that lead outside.

“Alright alright, jeez.” He huffed before leaving the room entirely to go and do whatever it is baby dragons do in their spare time.

Twilight sighed in relief as soon as Spike was out of earshot. That was a little too close. Turning to the robot, she began to wonder if what she had done was the right thing. If the robot couldn't fight, then she could have destroyed it right there and then. But instead, she helped it.

'Well, nothing I can really do about that now... I guess I’ll just read something until it wakes back up.' She thought to herself, looking over a nearby bookshelf to see if there was anything that caught her eye.

• - -Epsilon- - -

/////BEGIN LOG 5835/////

/////EMERGENCY REBOOT SUCCESSFUL. ALL AI FUNCTIONS NOMINAL/////

-Confirmed-

-Beginning startup scan-

…

-Startup scan complete-

-No system malfunctions detected. Shut down process caused no damage to priority systems-

-Scanning hardware-

…

-Scan completed. Hardware faults do not appear to have changed-

-All priority systems are ready to be engaged. Awaiting command from unit-

…

…

-Command received. All systems coming online-

As Epsilon gave to command to start up, he felt his body returning to life. He could practically feel the energy flowing around his wiring, it was like nothing he had ever experienced before.

He was still slightly swaying from the energy overdose, but he managed to stand up straight and look around him. He appeared to be in the same entrance hall he was in when he rebooted, meaning that the pony that saved him had not decided he was a threat. That or he was too heavy to move.

As he took in the hallway with a bit more attention, he heard a doorway open to his left. Turning his head, he found the pony that had saved him staring right at him, apparently unsure on what to do.

They stared at each other like that for some time before the pony broke the silence.

“H-hello?” She asked hesitantly.

-Subject appears to still fear you. Advise attempting to clarify you mean no harm-

“Greetings, pony,” Epsilon replied, giving the alicorn his full attention.

“Y'know, it's kind of rude to just keep calling us by our species.” She pointed out, still standing in the same position she arrived in.

“Apologies for not getting your name as I begging for my life.” He responded.

That caused her to go quiet for a moment. After a few seconds, she looked away and sighed, before looking back up at him.

“Alright, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. And you are?” She questioned.

“My given name is Epsilon-6. I assume that this is what you can call me.”

“I guess that will do, not really sure what I was expecting from a robot...” She said, a frown on her face.

They stood in silence for a little while longer, but it wasn't long before Epsilon's computer chipped in.

-From what the data banks have gathered about pony social structures, it may be beneficial to thank this pony for recharging this unit-

He gave Twilight a quick look over before breaking the silence, “Thank you, Princess Twilight Sparkle, for reviving me. By recharging my core, you have saved my life.”

The pony... Twilight, seemed confused at first before adopting a neutral look. “It's fine. Now, what exactly do you plan on doing from here?” She asked.

If Epsilon was honest with himself, he hadn't really thought that far in advance. He had been so focused on recharging his core that he had not figured anything out for after he was recharged.

“I am... unsure. I had not figured out any plans for when I was capable of moving freely again.”

At this, Twilight gave him a look that he could not figure out before saying, “You aren't going anywhere until Princess Celestia gets here. I sent her a letter explaining what happened and she should be here soon.”

“I see. Then I will await the Princess' arrival.” He replied before turning towards the door and sitting down.

“Why are you sitting there?” She asked, “Surely it would be better to wait in the meeting room.”

Epsilon looked over at Twilight as he gave his response, “In my bargaining for my life, I claimed I would do anything. I assumed, by the way you spoke to me, that I had not been given permission to move freely. And so I have decided to wait here until the Princess comes.”

Twilight did an odd movement with her fore leg, in which she moved her hoof up against her forehead and closed her eyes with a sigh before looking back at him.

“You have my permission to move into the meeting room and wait there.” She said.

“Confirmed.” He replied, with one last look around him, he got up and moved in the direction that Twilight was now pointing towards.

• - -Twilight- - -

Twilight sighed once more as she got settled down. She knew that the robot wouldn't be able to damage anything in that room as the meeting room was made with a crystal that was more durable than she had ever seen before. For some reason, however, that crystal only surrounded that one room.

It took a few hours of waiting around but she eventually heard a knocking at the castle doors. Opening it revealed the two princesses and a handful of guards.

“Hello there Twilight, I apologize for the wait but we came as quickly as we could,” Celestia said when she saw her old student standing in the doorway.

“It's not a problem, princess. Thank you for coming here, I needed to speak to you and... show you something.” Twilight replied, letting the princesses walk into the castle.

“It's not often you wish for us to come to you, Twilight. Is everything okay?” Luna asked.

Twilight gave a Luna a funny look before replying, “I'm honestly not sure, princess. I think it would be easier to explain the situation and allow you both to make a decision.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a second before turning back to Twilight, “Well,” Celestia said, “Let's get moving. I am quite anxious to hear what has brought you to call for us.”

Twilight nodded before taking the princesses to the meeting room doors.

“Now, what I am about to show you may shock you, but I think that it won't try to hurt anypony,” Twilight said, hoof on the door.

As she opened it, Celestia and Luna got ready to attack, but instead of finding something running towards them, or even sitting at the table, they found an empty room.

“Um, Twilight, what are we supposed to be looking at?” Celestia asked, looking around the room for anything suspicious, other than a metal statue at the back of the room, nothing had changed since she last came here.

“Wait, what? You don't see it?” Twilight asked, astounded that she couldn't spot the problem immediately.

“Other than that new statue I don't see anything new or out of place, is that what you wanted us to see?”

“Yes, but it isn't a statue, princess. It's some sort of robot!” Twilight said, pointing in the direction of the being at the end of the room.

“I see, so may we have a closer look at it?” Luna asked, hopeful to see something that advanced up close.

That question quickly stumped Twilight. She was now in a position she didn't want to be in. If she let them look at the robot more closely then they may be attacked, and it would all be her fault. On the other hoof, if she said no then the problem may never be solved.

Coming to a decision, she sighed and said, “Yes princess, but please be careful.”

The princess of the night gave a gasp of joy before bounding towards the robot, much to Twilight's surprise.

“Maybe we should talk about this robot elsewhere, Luna may be a while,” Celestia said with a smile, apparently not phased by her sister's unusual behavior.

• - -Epsilon- - -

-Reactivating unit-

-Scan pulse indicates multiple ponies in the area, three of them are highly powerful-

-Advise caution-

As his computer gave him these messages, Epsilon rose from his slumped position. He had shut himself down temporarily to save some power for when these princesses arrived. It now appeared that they had as two ponies he had never seen before were standing in the doorway with Twilight.

They were talking amongst each other, presumably about him, but he couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

After a couple of minutes of talking, the dark blue one gasped before running towards him, alerts immediately began sounding in his head.

/////WARNING! HIGH POWERED BEING MOVING RAPIDLY TOWARDS UNIT. ADVISE DEFENSIVE MODE/////

-Defensive module ready to be engaged-

'Only engage module on my command.'

-Confirmed-

While he gave that command, the pony was getting close and closer. Before long, she finally reached him and wasted no time in searching all over him, apparently admiring the machinery used to create him.

“Miss? I would appreciate it if you could stop poking at that.” He said.

As soon as those words escaped him he heard another gasp before finding the princess right against his face.

“It talks!? This is amazing!” She cried out with a smile as she went right back to prodding and admiring him.

Epsilon gave a sigh before turning to face the princess.

“Miss. I am aware that you are a high ranking individual but that gives you no right to be doing this.” He said. The pony looked downcast at that, or maybe disappointed, Epsilon wasn't sure, but at least she had stopped probing around him.

“My apologies, I didn't know that you were capable of self-awareness.” She said, still holding that look.

“It is fine, you were not aware of it and so I cannot hold you to blame. May I ask who you are?”

“Oh! I am Princess Luna, but you can just call me Luna, do you have a name? If not, maybe we can give you one!” Luna replied, a hopeful smile on her face.

“I hate to make you disappointed once more but I already have a designated name. It is Epsilon.”

Luna looked at the ground once more, she was clearly hoping to be able to name him, but Epsilon couldn't allow that. Not because he didn't want to, but because his computers understood and recognized his given name. If he was to change it then his AI would have to change a large amount of data in order to make it work.

“Oh, I see, well can we talk some more at least?” She asked, looking up hopefully.

“I see no problems with that, what do you wish to speak about?”

• - -Twilight- - -

“And so, as you can probably tell, princess, I have no idea what to do...” Twilight finished. She had been explaining what had happened since the moment she heard about the hole just the day before. Celestia had been listening patiently the entire time.

“From what you have told me, the robot only attacked your friends in self-defense?” She asked.

“Well, yes. But that doesn't change the fact that my friends and those guards are currently in a hospital! There was no need to be so violent!” Twilight replied.

Celestia was quiet for a moment, apparently thinking her reply through before she said it. She eventually broke the silence.

“While what it did was bad, as it fought back only in self-defense, I can't really do anything about it. All of the ponies that are in hospital will be able to leave after a few weeks of bedrest and they will not have any lasting problems from what you have told me. Had the robot attacked with being provoked then I most certainly have done something about it.”

Twilight looked at her in shock, she couldn't believe that the princess was passing this issue off so freely. Surely the robot should be punished in some way.

“Is there nothing you can do about it, princess?” She asked, hoping to have something, anything, done to the robot that had caused so much pain and stress for those she knew.

“There may be something, Twilight.” Celestia responded, giving her a smile, “Try to accept it. I will go and visit the injured, I can probably speed up their recovery. In the mean time, why not attempt to show this robot the correct ways to deal with those types of situations? Then something like this wouldn't happen in the future.”

With her objective now given, she left the room, leaving a gob smacked Twilight sitting in a chair, watching her mentor leave the room. When Celestia was gone, she began trying to comprehend the task that had just been given to her. She had to teach a robot? How do you teach a robot to do something like that?