It was another beautiful day in Canterlot City. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and everyone in the town was outside enjoying this momentous occasion. That is, everyone except Twilight Sparkle, the number one science student of Canterlot High School. She was stuck in her room working on her newest invention. In fact, she had been working on this project for a whole month and during that time, her only contact with the outside world was school. She also had decided not to tell her friends about her invention until its completion and this had made them very concerned. Luckily, this was the day she was putting the finishing touches on her project and she had invited all six of her friends to see what she had accomplished. They were only a few blocks away from her house when they started discussing recent events.

"What do y'all think she's cooked up this time? A time machine?"

"I have no idea, but it's gotta be very big, considering her weeks-long disappearance."

"Maybe it's a food distributor for homeless animals."

"Or a website that determines your daily clothing, based on the weather or whatever's hot this season."

"Or a totally creepy-looking robot based on another creepy-looking robot from another dimension full of superheroes created by an old guy who always cameos in the movies of his heroes!"

Everyone looked at Pinkie Pie dumbfounded.

"What?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the case."

"Oh, yeah? 10 bucks says you're wrong, Rainbow!"

"Ha! You're so on!"

They spit on their hands and shook them.

"Can we get a move on, please? I don't wanna waste the whole day continuin' this banter!"

"Chill, AJ! We're moving, okay? Jeez!"

They continued towards Twilight's house and when they arrived there, she opened the door before they could ring her doorbell. She was wearing her lab coat, her hair was a total mess, there was motor oil on her forehead, and calling her excited would be a total understatement.

"Thank goodness you're all here! Come quick!"

She grabbed all six of them, pulled them inside, and brought them upstairs to her room. Once there, they saw a huge object covered by a white blanket. While Twilight went typing something on her computer, the girls encountered Twilight's dog, Spike lying on her bed. He jumped to the ground as soon as he saw them.

"Hey, guys!"

Rarity immediately ran towards him and started petting him.

"Well, hello, Spikey poo! I've missed you so much! How have you been?"

"I'm alright, but I can't really say the same for Twilight. She hasn't eaten or slept for three days, now. It's all because of her obsession with finishing her weird ro-"

Twilight immediately closed his mouth and looked at her friends with a nervous smile.

"Sorry about that, but I'd like to introduce this new invention myself."

She closed her room's curtains and turned on a light that beamed over the mysterious object.

"Ladies, behold the ultimate peace-keeper, ULTRON-5!"

As soon as she removed the white blanket, every single one of her friends gasped in terror. Her invention was a human-shaped robot with a head that resembled that of an ant. It was made out of titanium and its eyes were glowing blue.

"AH! CREEPY ROBOT!"

Then, she realized something and turned to Rainbow Dash with a smile.

"So, does that mean..."

Rainbow passed her a 10-dollar bill while still staring at the robot and Pinkie let out a small laughter after taking it.

"Twilight, what in tarnation is that monstrosity?!"

Sunset hit her in the shoulder before giving her a disapproving look.

"What? You've gotta admit it's pretty intimidatin'!"

Sunset rolled her eyes.

"Well, first of all, it's not meant to be scary. I had to come up with a design that would make its antennas relevant, so I decided to model its head after the head of an ant. 'What do these antennas do?' you may ask. Well, let me show you."

She turned towards Ultron.

"Initiate the scan."

Ultron's eyes flashed even brighter.

"Scanning completed. Seven Equestrian magic sources detected. One source is located 10 inches due north and the other six sources are located 10 feet due north."

"Wait, those sources are us! You mean this robot can detect Equestrian magic?"

"And respond to it if it's a threat. I've equipped it with all sorts of non-lethal tools from stun laser to bug spray. That way, it will find and contain any sorts of incidents involving Equestrian magic within a 10-mile radius so, we won't spend every day worrying about them."

"Well, no wonder you were gone for weeks, darling. You gave all your energy into building this machine so we won't get tired dealing with magical ruffians. Even I can't be that generous."

"So, do you like it?"

Everyone thought about this for a while.

"Well, it sure looks useful, but what if it comes across a threat that it can't respond to?"

"I'm glad you asked that, Sunset. You see, what makes Ultron different from the other robots is that it's equipped with the first ever artificial intelligence program that analyzes a situation, determines the best way to solve it, and makes modifications according to the solution thanks to his signature molecular re-arranger. It learns quickly, evolves further, and becomes ready for a similar problem in the future."

"Okay, time out! I know where this is going. If science-fiction movies taught me anything it's that learning robots always become smart enough to get rid of their masters and start robocalypse!"

"Not to worry, Rainbow. I've carefully programmed ULTRON to never hurt anyone. Besides, I can always shut him down with a passcode in case of an emergency."

She turned to Ultron again.

"Begin shutdown sequence. Passcode, Orion."

"Shutdown code accepted."

Its eyes immediately faded to black.

"You see?"

"Okay, that's pretty awesome."

"So, do you think it can stay online?".

Everyone thought about it and then, nodded in agreement.

"I think we have a new friend."

"Sunset's right. Maybe I was a little too harsh with that whole comment about it bein' intimidatin'."

"YAY! Let's celebrate it with a "gaining a robot friend" party!"

"Great! You guys go ahead. I'm gonna reactivate ULTRON and meet you downstairs".

She turned towards Ultron once again.

"Begin activation sequence. Passcode, Prime."

It's eyes immediately flashed blue.

"Activation code accepted. Would you like to restart the scan?".

"Sure, go ahead".

The eyes then flashed even brighter.

"Scan completed. Equestrian magic source detected. Location, 1.5 miles due southwest".

"What? There's another source?".

"Affirmative. Permission to intercept".

"Permission granted".

It immediately fired up its rocket boosters and flew through the front entrance towards the source.

"Come on, girls! This is our first chance to see ULTRON in action!".

"Does that mean we're gonna follow it?

"Fluttershy, it's flying to the other side of town to deal with an incident involving Equestrian magic. Of course we're gonna follow it!"

"Oh, maybe it's not such a good idea. I mean, it may not like us getting in its way or-".

"Come on! It's gonna be fun! Besides, we need to see proof that it can handle magic problems right?"

"Uh, I guess you're right."

"Then, what are we waiting for? LET'S FOLLOW OUR NEW METAL BUDDY!".

Rarity quickly called a limo and, in a few minutes, they were on their way to see Ultron's first interaction with magic.

Author's Note

ULTRON-5 is very similar to the version of Ultron that appears in the cartoon The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes BEFORE he turns evil. Ultron in that show is voiced by Tom Kane, so feel free to imagine his voice as the voice of ULTRON-5.