Epsilon-6

• - -Twilight- - -

It didn't take long for her five friends to arrive at the castle. She had sent Epsilon upstairs to make sure her friends were calm, she wasn't entirely sure on how she would introduce it to them, but she had more important matters to deal with.

Rainbow and Applejack had to wheel-chaired in by a couple of nurses, but they left soon after when they realized that they had no reason to be there.

“Ooh, I'm so excited! I wonder what is going to be over there!” Pinkie exclaimed, practically bouncing on her chair. They were sat around the table in their seats, Spike sitting right beside Twilight.

Rainbow gave Pinkie a sideways glance before turning to Twilight, “Do you think it's anything to do with... you know, the thing?” She asked. Twilight understood immediately, it would only be natural that she would assume the bunker in the White Tail as the source of the beacon after all that had gone on with it.

“It may well be, but we can hope that it isn't,” Twilight replied, ignoring the confused looks from the others who were not in the bunker on that fateful day.

Applejack had been quietly looking over the others, apparently thinking hard on something. After a little while of listening she spoke up, “Twi, we should probably tell them what happened, no reason to keep them out of this,”

Twilight sighed, she knew that Applejack was right, she had just hoped that she wouldn't need to. With a determined look, she looked towards the other three, “Alright, I suppose you should all know what really happened there,”

The others leaned closer, interested in what could have lead Twilight to keep it so secret. However, they slowly leaned back as they heard Twilight recount what had happened in the bunker.

When Twilight had finished her tale, the ponies -and Spike- that hadn't heard about it had almost come to tears. They hadn't heard something so brutal since they had heard the tale of King Sombra.

“S-so you think that this... robot... is why the map is telling us to go there?” Rarity asked, shaking slightly.

'Well, I suppose this is as good of a time as any' Twilight thought to herself. She looked up at all her friends as she spoke, “No. The robot will not be the reason that the map has called us,”

Her friends gave her a questioning look, but Applejack's expression was turning to one of fear, “But why wouldn't it? Surely the evidence here would suggest it,” Rarity asked, not noticing Applejack's look.

“The robot isn't the problem because, well... the robot is here,” Twilight said, looking down towards the table.

The silence was overwhelming, none of the ponies could think of anything to say for a long while. It took nearly two minutes for Rainbow to finally say something, “S-so, the r-robot that nearly killed us... is in the c-castle?”

“Yes. But I promise you, it won't hurt you. It has explained itself, and its explanation was fairly understandable. It's upstairs, away from this room so please, calm down and let's talk about this.” Twilight responded.

“Talk about this!? How in the hay are we supposed to do that Twi? A machine attacked us and you let it stay in your home? What the buck were your thinking?” Rainbow shouted, seemingly having enough with the entire situation.

“I don't know!” Twilight shouted back, “I don't know...”

The alicorn quickly wiped tears she didn't know were falling before looking away, “regardless, the robot won't hurt anypony, I am making sure of that. For now, we need to focus on the map,” she said quietly. Her five friends all looked downcast, their mixed emotions were leaving them unsure as to what to think.

“So what should we do then? We can't use the Elements without Rainbow and Applejack,” a quiet voice said from across the table. Twilight was surprised when she looked up and found Fluttershy looking at her expectantly.

“Well, we need somepony to stay here and make sure the robot doesn't go anywhere, and we have to get Rainbow and AJ back to the hospital soon. Fluttershy, could you stay with it? You have always been good with things like this.” Twilight asked, hoping to get the situation resolved quickly.

“Of course, where is it?” Fluttershy replied, a small smile on her face. Twilight was fairly surprised that she agreed so willingly, especially after hearing about what happened in that bunker.

“It, uh... It's up in one of the spare bedrooms. Third door on the left when you get to the top of the stairs.” She managed to say, trying to get her head around Fluttershy of all ponies happily accepting this.

The pegasus gave a little nod before walking away, leaving the other six behind.

“Rarity and Pinkie, you both are going to have to come with me. We will get Rainbow and AJ to the hospital and then go and check on the area that this map is pointing to,” Twilight said, standing up and moving to wheel the two injured ponies out of the room.

Rarity and Pinkie gave each other a quick look before following Twilight out of the door. Leaving Spike alone in the room. Since he had not been given a task, he decided to go and have a look at the metal pony that had caused all of the trouble surrounding him.

• - -Epsilon- - -

-System boot up initiated-

-System scan beginning-

…

-Systems nominal. Hardware faults exist but are not harmful enough for alert to begin-

Epsilon opened his eyes. He had shut himself down to reserve some power while he waited for Twilight to return. His systems had activated him when they detected a pony heading towards the room he was sitting in.

After a few moments of waiting, he heard a faint knock at the door.

“U-um, hello? Mr Robot? Are you in there?” He heard through the door. His memory banks quickly notified him that the voice was from the yellow pony he had met before.

“I am. Do you require something from me?” He asked, his eyes focused on the door.

“Oh, um, Twilight asked me to watch you. Y'know, if that's okay I mean,” she replied.

Epsilon thought about it for a second before responding, “That is fine, Miss Fluttershy, please come in.”

He heard a little gasp on the other side of the door, confused, he asked his computer as to why she did this.

-Unit was in a virtual skin when it first met this pony. Pony does not understand why unit knows its name-

As he read his computers response, he watched the door open slightly and a blue eye look at him from the crack.

“You may enter, I will not harm you,” He said, hoping to give the pony some reassurance.

The door opened wider, revealing the little yellow pegasus that he had met not too long before. She was looking at him hesitantly, unsure of what to do.

Eventually, she inched closer to him and sat down a few feet from him. They sat in silence for a little while, which Epsilon was fine with. It allowed him to learn a bit more about pony emotional expressions.

She kept looking away from him and then back to him, apparently too nervous to ask anything. This went on for a few minutes before Epsilon finally broke the silence.

“So,” He began, Fluttershy looked up at him when she heard him speak but didn't say anything. “If I may ask, why are you so quiet? The other ponies I have met have been quite talkative.”

She blushed slightly and looked away once more. She didn't respond immediately, but Epsilon let her have the time she needed to respond.

“I... I have never been good at meeting new ponies,” she replied after a short silence.

“I am aware that you will not know this, but you have already met me in the past,” He said, still staring at her.

That got Fluttershy to look up at him, “I have? When? I don't remember ever meeting you.”

“You may remember a blue stallion that you met in the fields outside of this town.”

It took Fluttershy all but a few seconds to put two and two together.

“That was you? Why didn't you show yourself?” She asked.

“I was searching for a way to recharge my core. I did not want to start a panic with my appearance.”

Fluttershy seemed to calm slightly at that, she looked towards him, looking over every detail on his hull.

“I could have helped you, I am always happy to help ponies in need,” she said.

“That may be true, Miss Fluttershy, but as you may be able to see, I am not a pony.”

Fluttershy and Epsilon continued to talk, and while Epsilon was the only one to ask questions to begin with, Fluttershy eventually warmed up to him.

And just outside the door, a little dragon watched in awe as they spoke freely to each other.

• - -Twilight, fields nearing the White Tail forest- - -

They had been walking for some time now, coming ever closer to the area pointed out by the map. Twilight had decided to not teleport there as she was unsure of what was waiting for them.

None of the three spoke, even Pinkie Pie stayed quite surprisingly enough. After nearly an hour of walking, they began to see the forest of the horizon.

“Okay girls, this is it. I just hope that it isn't anything too major,” Twilight said, coming to a stop to let them rest.

“I'm afraid that if the map called for us then it most likely is something major,” Rarity said, looking towards the woods for any signs of life.

After a short rest, they were moving once more, slowly closing the distance between them and the forest.

But as they got closer, they began to notice something glinting in the distance. The light from the sun was shining against something. Twilight's heart sank as she realized that the something in question was quickly moving towards them.

• - -Epsilon- - -

Epsilon flinched as an alert blasted through his mind.

/////ALERT! RECLAMATION DRONE INBOUND ON UNIT'S POSITION. ADVISE EVACUATION/////

'Damnit'