• - -Twilight- - -

None of the ponies said anything for some time; they were still trying to get their heads around what they had just witnessed. However, while Rarity and Pinkie were in shock from the violence and apparent death of the machine they had thought was an ally, Twilight's mind was in a whole other area.

The realization of what could have actually happened had begun to finally settle into her mind. She had already come to the realization of how many ponies would have died. Instead, she was trying to think of ways she and her friends could have stopped that from happening.  But even after a few minutes of thinking, she couldn't come up with any ideas on how they could have stopped the machine from causing injuries to massive amounts of ponies.

Bringing her mind back to the situation at hoof, she looked over at the slumped over robot. It hadn't moved an inch since the fight had ended, and Twilight wasn't sure if she should be happy or worried about that.

She took a step forward, but felt a hoof on her shoulder, pulling her backward slightly. She turned to find Pinkie Pie standing there, giving her an almost fearful look.

“Please, Twilight. Don't go over there, you could get hurt,” she said, her bubbly voice now replaced with a more serious tone.

Twilight didn't respond right away. Instead, she turned towards the two machines before her. When she made her mind up, she turned back to Pinkie.

“You two go on ahead to Ponyville, make sure to let the other three know what happened. I have something I need to do,”

The pink mare hesitated for a moment, before walking away towards Rarity. After a few exchanged words, they both started walking towards the town, giving Twilight a worried look.

When the two mares were out of sight, Twilight looked over the small robot before her. She assumed that it had deactivated due to power issues, and so was looking for a way to open its hatch that encased its core.

As she searched, a voice rang out in her mind, 'You have the opportunity to end this. Do it, before it kills everypony in Ponyville.'

She shook her head and focused on what she was doing. While the voice was correct, she felt responsible for what had happened, and hoped to at least right the wrong she had done. Even if it began with something as small as this.

It was dusk when Twilight gave up. It was quite obvious that the plating was only made to move with specific tools or commands, neither of which she had. She had even tried cutting the metal open, but the spell just reflected off of the armor and nearly set a nearby tree on fire.

Running out of ideas, she started looking over the machine for any signs of weakness. She hoped to find a spot where her magic would pass through it. If it could reactivate itself, then it would be able to expose its core for her.

It took some time, reaching the point where she had to use a light spell in order to see, but she finally found what she had been looking for. The metal was weaker around the leg joints, apparently to allow it to move more freely. Twilight fired up her magic, readying for the spell.

'This is gonna hurt.'

• - -Epsilon- - -

/////EMERGENCY POWER ONLINE/////

/////CORE POWER IS AT 4% AND RISING/////

/////BEGINNING SYSTEM BOOT UP/////

…

-Systems ready-

Epsilon's vision slowly regained normality as his AI crowded his mind with notifications and alerts. He raised his head to see Twilight standing there, her horn glowing brightly. She looked like she was straining to keep up the spell that she was clearly using to charge him.

She stopped her spell when she saw him begin to move. It was difficult at first, as his systems continued to restore themselves, but he managed to at least turn his head properly and give his savior his full attention.

They looked at each other for a while, neither of them knew what to say. The silence was broken only by Twilight's heavy breathing, and the light wind passing through the few nearby trees.

Epsilon eventually decided to speak up, “You have now saved me twice within a few hours. I am unsure on how to thank you properly for this.”

Twilight smirked at that, “Just a thanks would be fine,”

“I see, well thank you for doing this for me. Though I am unsure why you would aid me,”

She tilted her head at that, apparently confused as to what he meant.

“It is no secret that you do not like or trust me, Twilight. I can understand your reasoning for it, but  I hope after some time that those feelings will change.”

Twilight looked down at the ground and sighed. She remained like that for a few seconds before raising her head once more.

“I guess while we are here, I should probably apologize to you. That... drone would never have come here is it wasn't for me,”

Epsilon just stood there, not responding. Twilight looked like she was about to speak up again, but was cut off by him speaking up once more.

“You are aware of what would have happened if this Reclamation Drone reached the town, yes?”

She flinched back at that. It was clear that she had already realized, but he wanted to hear her say it.

“Y-yes. I didn't think about it at the time; it said that it would only try to get you. I thought that it would keep its word.”

“So to recap, you found a massive machine moving towards the town that asked for my location, and instead of thinking about the consequences, you happily guided it here? You are gullible, Miss Sparkle, and that gullibility could have lead to the destruction of everything you care about. I am aware that you have come to terms with what you have done, and no doubt feel terrible about it, but you must be more cautious in the future.”

Twilight had stared at Epsilon throughout his entire speech, apparently surprised to receive a lecture from a robot.

“I-I know, I will try to think more about these things,” She replied.

Epsilon shook his head slowly. He would need time to process this; it was getting far too confusing for him.

“Are we at least able to return to your castle? I would like time to think and I still need your assistance with charging my core.” He asked.

“Oh! You still wanted to come back?”

He tilted his head slightly, “Of course I do. I have no other safe place to reside...”

The mare looked fairly stunned that he would so readily return with her, but began walking towards the town regardless. Her brow furrowed in thought as she slowly walked, not paying attention as the robot walked silently alongside her.

• - -TITAN- - -

/////SYSTEMS REMAIN IN STANDBY/////

/////SYSTEM LOGS HAVE BEGUN REPAIRS/////

/////ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL SYSTEM REPAIR: UNKNOWN/////

/////LOG 38 IS READY FOR PLAYBACK/////

-Beginning playback-

This is log... uh, 38 here in the bunker. We have begun work on the outer chassis of the new Droid today. The work is looking promising, though it could take a while. We have been working for most of the year on this thing, and the technology we have used in its construction has been heavily taxing on our resources. We will have to request new materials from the station as it passes by on its orbit.

On the matter of the crew, we haven't been doing all that well. We have only been here for two years, and we already have hate groups... It's only a matter of time before this gets worse. But I'm sure we will be fine, the station has quite a few Seekers ready, so if trouble does start, at least we have those to back us up.

We have been doing scans, and the inhabitants of this world have been advancing in their technology, albeit, slower than we anticipated. They seem to have built a town a few miles away, shouldn't be a problem providing they don't venture too far into the forest we are in. It would appear that the dominant species was not what we were expecting either, apparently, the equines have become dominant in this zone of the world, and other bunkers have been reporting signs of things ever weirder, like minotaurs and even damned dragons. We can only hope that none of them decide they want to come over here.

We have already started to work on remodeling the chassis to fit the equine nature of the inhabitants. It wasn't that much work to change it, as we hadn't gotten far with it in the first place, but the problem now is how we are going to get it to fit into their society. We obviously can't give the droid our language as the... I think they are ponies. Regardless, they wouldn't understand it. I'm sure we will come up with something.

…

Well, Mark is calling for me again, probably another problem with the welding. God, he is awful at that, so that should be it for me. TITAN, end log. #

-Log playback finished-

-No corruption detected. Filing log into database-

-Repairs continuing. Returning to standby phase-

• - -Celestia, Canterlot Castle- - -

Celestia stared down at the piece of paper she had received; it had been sent to her by a lookout that she had posted to keep an eye on Epsilon after she had left. Apparently, shortly after she had left Ponyville, there had been a fight between Epsilon and a larger, unknown robot.

As she continued to read the report, she heard a light tapping at the door. Looking up, she found her sister standing there with a smile.

“I see you are hard at work, sister,” She said, walking forward a short distance.

“Luna, have you read this report?” Celestia asked, not wanting to idly talk with such a massive issue on her mind.

“I don't believe so, may I see it?” Luna walked forward, curious as to what could have put her sister in such a panicked mood. Celestia quickly hooved the paper to her, looking at her expectantly.

It only took a few minutes for Luna to read the document before her, but it took a few more to piece together what she had read. A fight of that magnitude hadn't occurred in Equestria for many months; she had almost gotten used to not having to worry about fights in the country at all.

“So,” She eventually began, “what do you propose we do about this?”

“I say that we don't do anything major right now. It is clear that Epsilon has no intentions of attacking Ponyville or the ponies that live there. But, he has the ability to sense approaching threats, maybe not all threats, but at the very least he can see the machines.”

Luna thought upon that for a moment before responding, “what about the Seekers?”

Her sister cocked an eyebrow at that, “I did say nothing major,”

“I am aware of that, Tia, but the Seekers are not only built to destroy. They are a valuable tool in scouting missions, and I am sure that we could have one of our Seekers keep an eye on them.”

“I see, then who do you suppose we send?”

“Culmus has always been good at these types of things, and we can have Ventus keep watch on us both while his partner is doing this,” Luna said, sitting down before her sister.

“I agree, I will send word to Culmus soon. Hopefully he will be okay with it...”

• - -Celestia, 15 minutes later- - -

“No.”

“Please, Culmus. You are the best option in this case,”

“My duty is to protect you and your family from harm. It is not my job, nor my duty, to protect some small town that has an unchosen princess living there.”

“Twilight is pretty much family to me at this point. I raised her for most of her life.”

“That changes nothing. Unless this... robot becomes a danger to you or your family, I refuse to step into this.”

Celestia sighed. She should have known he would be like this, though she wasn't giving up yet.

“What if Twilight became chosen, would you help then?”

“Probably not. While it would raise my opinion of her, she would still be unprotected by me and Ventus.”

“Culmus! Please! I care for that mare, and while she may not be chosen, I still care for her safety. I can't trust my guards to protect her as the robot she is with would see them easily. You are capable of hiding from almost anything; you would be perfect for this. Ventus would still be looking out for us while you were gone, and I doubt that anypony will attempt to harm us any time soon.”

He seemed to dwell on this for some time, looking at his options.

“Are you absolutely sure that Ventus can keep you safe?” He asked.

“Yes, of course. You already know that having two Seekers in one building is overboard to begin with.”

“...Fine. When do you wish for me to leave?”

“As soon as possible, I don't want anything worse to happen to Twilight or her friends.”

Culmus nodded at that and began walking away, likely towards a secluded window somewhere else in the castle. When he left her eyesight, she turned to a window that overlooked Ponyville.

“Help is on its way, just hang in there.” She whispered, her eyes locked upon the faint glimmering of the distant castle.