Hunter's Downfall

Chapters

Chapter 2: The Fashion Designer
Chapter 3: The Athlete
Chapter 4: The Excitable Waitress
Chapter 5: The Animal Caretaker
Chapter 6: The Farmer
Chapter 7: The Former Bully
Chapter 8: Equestria Land
Chapter 9: Maverick
Chapter 10: The Future
Chapter 1: The Hunter Wakes

Chapter 2: The Fashion Designer

A week of testing and diagnostics had passed and Leila enjoyed her time with Twilight Sparkle. She learned a lot from the young scientist and came to respect her. The Reploid had to admit that the teenager reminded her of her creator at times. The two of them both loved science, but deep down had a kind heart and wanted help others. However, the Maverick Hunter was a bit bored of staying in the lab and had instead taken to wandering the streets of the city. The people here were still a bit apprehensive about an armored and armed person wandering the city according to what the listening devices in her ears were able to pick up. She was thankful that they didn't figure out that she happened to be a machine rather than a human, there was no telling what they might do if they found out.

The Reploid looked around at the people going about their day, it was so different from where she came from. Everyone was living their lives without fear, without wondering when the next Maverick attack would come. It dawned upon her that this was a peaceful world that didn't know the constant conflict that her world knew. She felt an aching in her chest that she couldn't explain, something that her internal diagnostics told her wasn't there. However, her proximity alarm told her that she was about to run into something. Leila stopped and turned her head to see what it was. She looked and saw a girl standing there with white skin and azure eyes, she had purple hair. As Leila scanned over her and noticed the kind of clothing the girl wore, it was immediately apparent that people could afford to have some sort of fashion sense that seemed impractical on a survival basis.

"Darling, you seem interested in my fashion sense," the girl pointed out. By Leila's best guess, she was at most eighteen years of age.

The Maverick Hunter looked at the human's wrist and the bracelet caught her attention. According to her sensors, it was solid gold. A precious metal that they couldn't afford to waste where she came from. "Oh, my bracelet? It is solid gold, I think it just goes so well with my crystal heels. Wouldn't you agree?" the human asked.

All of this felt excessive to the Reploid and she wanted to point this out. But she was curious, she had never tried clothes before. She couldn't even remember the last time she had removed her armor or the bodysuit underneath. Yet before all hell broke loose two years prior, she had wanted to try out clothing. It was something that the humans of her world wore and she wanted to see what it was like. She didn't know if she'd like it or not, but a memory was accessed and the events of exactly two years ago were played in her mind. She was at a mall to get some clothing to try on at the suggestion of Alia when most of the Reploids in the mall suddenly went berserk for a reason she couldn't explain.

On the outside, Rarity looked at the Reploid who suddenly had a thousand yard stare. "Um, are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

Leila quickly shoved that memory from her active processes and looked towards the girl in question. "Yeah, I'm alright. I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Leila," she stated.

The fashionista's eyes lit up, "Oh, so you're Leila. I'm Rarity! Twilight's told me all about you. Is it true that you're a—" she started to say before the Reploid quickly cupped her hand on the human's mouth in reflex.

The Maverick Hunter leaned in and lowered the volume of her voice synthesizer, "Not in public. I don't want everyone to know that I'm not Human," she said in a voice low enough that no one but Rarity could hear her.

The fashionista got the hint and nodded, causing the Reploid to remove her hand from the human's mouth. "Come on, my home isn't too far from here," she stated, wanting the machine to follow her.

Leila was curious about what kind of home this human lived in. She was familiar with Twilight's lab and her surprisingly middle class home for someone who used to go to a prep school. Her neural network started to draw up possible images of what the house would look like based on the houses that she had seen up until now. Much to her surprise though, Rarity stopped in front of a manor. The Reploid's jaw dropped at this. She wasn't expecting anyone to live in a place as extravagant as this.

"Come Darling, you're welcome inside, just take off your boots. No telling where those have been," the purple haired human told her as an invitation.

The Maverick Hunter sat down and removed her boots and picked them up in her hands. She noticed Rarity was looking at her knees in surprise. "You act like you were expecting me to detach my lower leg from my upper leg at the knee," she teased.

The fashionista looked up and didn't have much of an answer to this. "Don't worry, most humans assume Reploids don't have lower legs. The first generation Reploids wore thick boots. Apparently as a holdover from the Robot Master days. Second gen Reploids had slimmer boots and we third gens wear boots that look like the ones any human where we come from wear. It's armor to protect the delicate joints in our legs. You'd be surprised how little synthetic skin does to protect the inner workings of a Reploid from buster shots and beam sabers after all," Leila stated with a smirk.

Rarity folded her arms, "So you seemed to know exactly what I was thinking then. How'd you guess that?" she asked.

The Reploid placed her boots right inside the door as she walked into the house, the fashionista following her. "You're not the first person to ask that question or gawk at a Reploid's legs expecting their boots to be their lower legs and if removed the Reploid would be awkwardly hobbling around on their knee servos. It's rather funny to watch, actually," she informed her host.

The fashionista huffed at her guest finding amusement in her confusion.

"If you want, I can remove the rest of my armor, I assure you that I have lower arms and a thorax. However, the helmet stays on," Leila offered with a smirk on her face that suggested she was being cheeky about this.

Rarity didn't find this amusing in the slightest and her brow furrowed. The Reploid was quick to notice and cleared her throat, "If Twilight told you everything, you know that the world I come from is bleak. We tend to use humor and light teasing to cope with the devastation. It's not much, but it's a better way of dealing with it than being dark, brooding, and humorless. People and Reploids like that don't last long and eventually go crazy. There's an important distinction between a realist and someone being negative for the sake of it. I apologize for getting carried away," she informed her host.

Fortunately for her, her host was a generous and forgiving person. "It's quite alright, Darling," she stated.

Leila removed her gauntlets and her armored jacket and Rarity took them both, surprised at how light the armor was. It felt like it weighed next to nothing, yet the Maverick Hunter considered it armor. "It's made of an old alloy that was developed by a brilliant scientist known as Doctor Light. Ceramic Titanium, also known as Ceratanium. Doctor Thomas Light didn't live long enough to see his creation be advanced upon, but I think he'd be thrilled to have seen it be used for the creation of lightweight but durable construction materials," the Reploid pointed out.

For the first time and much to the surprise of Rarity, Leila removed her helmet. Underneath the helmet was long red hair that flowed to the Reploid's lower back. This surprised the purple haired human who expected the helmet to always stay on. "Twilight told me that you were good with fashion, I'm certain it would be difficult to find something that went with my helmet," the Maverick Hunter said with a grin.

The red-haired Reploid carried the helmet into a room that Rarity led her into and placed it on a nearby table. Though she might have taken it off, she didn't want it to be too far away. The fashion designer quickly left the room to gather some clothing leaving Leila to wonder what she was going to bring back. As she waited, her attention was drawn to a white cat. The cat was wearing eyeshadow just like her presumed owner. The Reploid held out her hand towards the cat, it had been a while since she had seen an animal. Immediately the white cat started to hiss and yowl at her.

"I guess you're not a friendly cat, oh well, it was worth a shot," the Maverick Hunter stated with a shrug.

Rarity walked back into the room and handled Leila a pair of knee high green boots which were slimmer and made of a different material. On top of this, they were mid-heel boots. She also gave her a green skirt with a green blouse. "You seem to like the color green, Darling and I have to admit that it does complement your eyes and your hair," she stated.

The generous human walked out of the room and the Reploid started getting dressed. She had never done this before, but her creator had installed information on how to do it. She quickly accessed the files he left her for this very occasion within her memory and quickly got dressed. When she looked at herself in a mirror, she realized that she would pass for a human if she got rid of her bodysuit. Removing the clothes she had gotten, she then removed the bodysuit's top half, remembering that some women wore stockings with their boots and her bodysuit's lower half looked enough like stockings to pass. She got dressed again and folded up the top half of the bodysuit. "You can come back in now," she stated at the door.

Rarity walked back in again with a hat to go with this, "Wow, you look entirely human. If I didn't know you were a robot, I'd have easily mistaken you for a human. Even despite the things where your ears are supposed to be," she pointed out.

Leila smiled and tapped one of them, "These bionic ear pieces are how we third generation Reploids are able to hear," she said.

The fashion designer smiled and placed the helmet on the Reploid's head. She turned the machine around and her smile grew, "All of this looks perfect on you and don't worry about asking about what it costs, Darling. Any friend of Twilight gets whatever help they need from me," she said with a grin.

This was something new to the Maverick Hunter, she had never been given anything for free as a gift before, except for her creator, of course. Everything else, she had to work for or pay for. She tried to find anything in her files about gifts, but unfortunately her creator hadn't programmed that knowledge into her, causing the Reploid to lament that he hadn't taught her about how to properly receive a gift. So she'd just have to wing it. "What do I say here?" she asked.

"Darling, you don't need to say anything. As long as you're happy with it, I'm happy," Rarity pointed out.

Somehow that didn't feel right to Leila, but she figured that the person who gave her these clothes knew best. She retrieved her armor and placed it into a bag that the fashion designer had picked out for her, it was a matching green to her boots. She took a few steps to get her internal gyro systems used to walking around in mid-heeled boots. "I'm going to head back to Twilight's lab. I'm sure she's probably worried about me," she said, a bit worried.

"Nonsense, Darling. I'm sure Twilight knows where you are, and besides. I texted her that you were here and safe while I was getting some clothing for you," Rarity said with a smirk.

The Reploid placed her hand on Rarity's shoulder, "You're a good friend, Rarity. Never let anyone tell you otherwise," she stated.

The fashion designer nodded, "Well as you said, you should probably get back to her lab, I'll see you some time later?" she asked.

Leila nodded and then left the manor. She started to make her way to the lab, but she noticed that no one really paid attention to her on the way back. It was a welcome change of pace. None of the whispers or mutterings of worried people. Just everyone else went about their business and left the Reploid alone. A smile crossed her features as she realized just how peaceful this really felt.

Chapter 3: The Athlete

Leila chased after a white ball with black spots on a green field, it had been two days since she had met Rarity for the first time and she was learning from another one of Twilight's friends. Despite her mid-heels she was still faster normally than any other human. One of the players from the opposite team tried to steal the ball from the Reploid, but her neural network told her the exact course of action that she needed to take to have the ball. Digging her foot under the ball, she launched it into the air and leapt up in a flip to kick the ball towards the goal. This stunned everyone as they had never seen someone jump six feet into the air before, much less doing a flip while doing it. The ball flew towards the goal as the Maverick Hunter's internal gyro systems righted her to let her land on her feet.

The goalie on the opposing team was just as dumbfounded as everyone else. The ball flew into the goal with enough force to move the goal itself. Everyone looked at the Reploid, a mix of confusion and amazement on their faces. She placed her hand on the back of her head and laughed a bit nervously, "I forgot that I'm not supposed to do something like that," she stated.

"That... was... awesome!" yelled a raspy voice behind her.

Lelia turned to see a cyan human with rainbow hair running towards her, she had been informed that this friend of Twilight's was known as Rainbow Dash. Though she understood where the Rainbow part of her name came from, but not the Dash. She didn't seem to be particularly fast or anything compared to any other humans. Said athlete grabbed the hand of the Reploid and before her neural network could process what had happened, they were running at a velocity that her internal speedometer told her was far beyond the realm of possibility for a human and was faster than her own internal dash mechanisms could propel her at.

They suddenly stopped in a room where no one else was located and despite her frame being capable of withstanding attacks, the sudden deceleration to a complete stop caused some damage both externally and internally. The Maverick Hunter's auto-repair functions kicked in to repair her systems. "Twilight told me that you were more capable of athletic ability than any human, but I guess you're not as fast as I am," Rainbow Dash boasted.

"My Emergency Acceleration System or internal dash mechanism if you prefer can accelerate me to roughly sixty to seventy miles per hour according to my internal speedometer. However you just ran closer to two hundred and seventy-six, then stopped suddenly without sustaining any injuries. My frame isn't designed for an impact like that and I know humans aren't designed for something like that!" Leila stated, confused.

"I don't understand it either, but I guess it has to do with the Equestrian Magic that Sunset Shimmer told me about," the athlete replied with a shrug.

The cyan human's face lit up as something crossed her mind that Leila couldn't understand. "So you're a robot that has done a lot of hero stuff, right!?" she asked excitedly.

Leila walked towards the door, she didn't want talk about where she had come from. Her hand reached for the doorknob when Rainbow Dash suddenly appeared in front of her. "I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, Leila. Just Twilight told me about how you would save people and robots like you from bad robots," she apologized.

The Reploid didn't care, she grabbed the human with her left hand and shoved her out of the way. She used her free hand to open the door and left the room and walked down an unfamiliar hallway of a building she didn't know the layout of. She turned the corner and ran into a human with grayish blue skin and two-tone blue hair. While the Maverick Hunter wasn't jolted by the impact, the human fell towards the ground, prompting the Reploid to catch her, "Sorry about that, I got you," she said apologetically.

As the human got on her feet, she looked the Maverick Hunter over, "You're not one of the students here. What are you doing on campus?" she asked in an authoritative tone, arms folded in front of her chest.

Rainbow Dash suddenly rushed next to them both, "I'm so sorry, Vice-Principal Luna, this is my cousin Leila. She was here to deliver something to me and wasn't familiar with the layout of the building. Cousin, you know you're supposed to sign in as a guest at the front office, right?" she lied.

This was something new to the Reploid. No one had ever lied about her being part of their family before, nor did they ever lie in what she thought was an incredibly unconvincing way. The human that Rainbow Dash had called Vice-Principal Luna looked at her as if to seek an answer, but all the Maverick Hunter could do was try to process what she should do next. "Your cousin, huh?" the grayish blue woman said with an arched brow.

The cyan human elbowed Leila, "Come on, Cousin. There's no reason to pretend that you don't know or like me," she stated.

The Maverick Hunter came to the conclusion that the path of least resistance was to go along with this obviously terrible lie. "Yeah, she's my cousin alright!" she stated as she pulled Rainbow Dash into her side with a faked smile.

A tense moment passed and it seemed that their lie wouldn't be bought, but the Vice-Principal shrugged, "Well then, Miss Leila. Next time you should sign in at the front office and get a guest badge. Then we won't think you're just some random person breaking into the school," she said before walking away.

When the woman was out of earshot, Leila looked at Rainbow Dash with an incredulous look, "Really, cousins. That was the best thing you could come up with? You and I barely look alike. Not to mention, I calculate an eighty-five point six seven two three chance of her not buying your lie," she stated in a hushed and annoyed tone.

"When you talk about numbers, you sound just like Twilight. Don't worry, she totally bought the lie," Rainbow Dash said.

As if she had tempted fate, Luna walked back and handed the Cyan athlete a sheet of paper, "I know you're not cousins. Friends, maybe. But not cousins, you two don't even look alike. I'll see you in detention," she stated.

The Reploid didn't even wait this time, "I told you, RD," she stated smugly.

The Vice-Principal turned to the Maverick Hunter, "As for you, I will escort you out of the building. If you return, sign in at the front office or I will have the police escort you out of here next time," she warned.

Lelia shrugged, "Will do," she stated, making a mental note to not return to the school at all costs.

Luna escorted the Reploid off of the campus of the school. Leila was sure to thank her for showing her how to leave and asked for directions to a nearby park. The two of them parted on surprisingly good terms despite what had happened and the Maverick Hunter walked to the park where she sat watching the birds and other creatures go about their business. Where she came from, animals like this were rare. The constant fighting over the Maverick Wars and the now nearly non-stop fighting of the Elf Wars cause devastation to the planet's surface. Though no one event was as destructive to the ecosystem of her world as the Eurasia Incident. She wasn't active during that time, but according to her creator, his father had told him about the incident. The Sigma Virus had leaked all over the planet, both humans and Reploids were affected by this. The Maverick Hunters had used an old cannon to attack the space colony. Only 62% of the entire thing had been destroyed. After that, a brave Reploid known as Zero rammed a space shuttle into it, ejecting at the last moment. 82% of the colony was destroyed, the remaining 18% rained down upon the Earth and caused mass destruction, forcing humanity underground. This was why animals in the wild were much rarer than they were in this world even by the time of her being brought online.

"Commander... I think I understand why you fight now. I used to think it was just for the sake of humans and Reploids. But seeing these animals that I've only ever seen in pictures, it gives me a better appreciation for life," she said quietly to herself.

The Maverick Hunter's proximity sensors were tripped not long after and the raspy voice from before said, "Well, detention is over. Hey, you look mesmerized by these creatures. Don't tell me that you haven't seen birds or squirrels before," Rainbow Dash said smugly.

"Only in pictures that were uploaded to my memory unit, I was told by Commander X that he saw birds during the Second Generation Reploid Rebellion, also better known as the Jakob Incident. I was brought online long after the events of this conflict. By that time, Commander X had fought at least 8 different conflicts against Sigma, all of which caused damage to the ecosystem of the planet. Where I come from isn't a pleasant place, but sitting here, watching nature. It's calming, soothing, and it reminds me why I fight," Leila stated without turning.

"So you are some kind of superhero!" the athlete chimed as she walked around the bench and grinned in the Reploid's face.

Said Reploid wasn't amused with the constant talk about her being a hero. She didn't see herself as a hero. "I never considered myself a hero and I never will. I was originally designed to help the Maverick Hunters out with rescue operations, but was upgraded shortly after joining to be a fully fledged hunter. I save people because it's the right thing to do, I protect people because it's the right thing to do. Their praise and adulation is irrelevant to me, ultimately at the end of the day, what's important is that I do what my... as you humans put it, heart tells me is the right thing to do," she stated harshly.

Rainbow Dash sat down next to her and gently placed a hand on the Maverick Hunter's face to turn it so that they could make eye contact, "A hero is the kind of person that does the right thing because it's the right thing to do. They don't seek praise and adulation, they just receive it for the deeds they commit. Heroes help other people because they have the power to help other people. You have the power to do that in your world and you have the power to do that here, why don't you go out and help others. I mean the Canterlot Police could always use another member on their force, even if that member happens to be an incredibly advanced machine," she encouraged.

This got Leila to start thinking, she could do some good around here and her frame was resistant to bullets. But it wouldn't take long for the fact that she was a Reploid to be revealed if she were to randomly go around helping the Police. She then thought about helping the Fire Department, but decided against that for the same reason. The Reploid shook her head and sighed, "I want to keep a low-profile. The amount of good I would do by helping people like that would be overshadowed by the potential panic that them figuring out I was a non-human would cause, thank you for the offer. I think I'm going to head back to Twilight's place, her parents have offered me a guest room since their eldest son had moved out," she said.

The Maverick Hunter stood up and started to walk away, but she suddenly stopped. "By the way, Rainbow Dash?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

A smile crossed Lelia's face, "If you can introduce me to more sports, I would love to get to learn how to play them. They're fun and I can see why you enjoy them," she offered.

A large grin crossed the athlete's face, "You bet I'll introduce you to sports, perhaps next time we meet I can show you how to play basketball!" she exclaimed.

The Reploid couldn't help but laugh at Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm, "Same time tomorrow then?" she asked.

The cyan human gave a thumbs up, "You bet!" she stated. The two of them faced each other with a grin on their face and gave each other a light punch in the shoulder as a sign of friendship between the two of them.

Chapter 4: The Excitable Waitress

It had been two weeks since she arrived in this world and Leila found herself in jogging clothes for the first time. She was going for a jog through the streets of the town to experience what it was like instead of just running towards or away from her objective. The longer she lived in this world, the more she felt like a normal Reploid rather than a Maverick Hunter. The humans of this world didn't pay her any attention and some of them jogged alongside her from time to time. She was happy, to her, the world around her seemed to just melt away and she was safe within her own bubble. However, her sensors were able to keep her out of danger. Deep in the back of Leila's mind, she wondered if humans ever started to lose sight of the world around them as if nothing mattered but their own little paradise when they were happy.

The Reploid ended up crossing a road and ended up in front of a cafe. Something in her programming told her that someone or something that she hadn't expected was close to her, but her proximity sensor hadn't been tripped.

"Hiya! Welcome to Sweet Snacks Cafe!" said an unusually cheery voice.

If Leila had a biological heart, it would've stopped beating at that exact moment. Unfortunately for her, Reploids could feel fear and get surprised. Her proximity sensor suddenly went of and she whipped around, instinctively reaching on her back for her Buster Shot. Since the Buster Shot was holstered in her armor, she couldn't find it, so she engaged the L-buster on her left hand, causing her left hand to withdraw into her wrist to reveal a green armored cannon on that hand.

The pink human that had scared the everloving daylights out of the Maverick Hunter seemed to recognize the weapon despite Leila having never used it here. Her cheery smile vanished and her hair deflated to become long and flat. "Or... I guess you have better things to do," she said in a dejected tone.

It took the Reploid a couple of seconds to register what had happened, her cognitive neural network caught up to what was going on and after a quick scan, she determined that she wasn't in any danger. The buster reconfigured itself back into her left hand, "Sorry about that. Usually my proximity alarm tells me if something comes within a few feet of me, but you were able to get past that to get almost right behind me. I didn't mean to frighten you, are you alright?" she asked, her voice showing concern.

"Yeah... I'm fine. You have a nice day..." said the saddened pink human.

Leila remembered Twilight telling her about this, she accessed the file in her memory to tell her who this person in front of her was and what was going on. "You're Pinkie Pie, but you're currently in your Pinkamena state. One of Twilight's friends. Hmm, according to her, if you were ever in your Pinkamena state, I should offer to join you for a party of some sorts," she recounted.

The Maverick Hunter had no idea what would happen by uttering these words, but Pinkie's hair poofed up and she smiled brightly, "A party! Well come on and we'll get you started here at the Sweet Snacks Cafe!" she exclaimed.

Before the Reploid could register what was going on, her arm was grabbed and she was dragged into the cafe. The pink waitress placed her in a booth and rolled back behind the counter to start telling a chef the order. It was at this point, Leila was glad that she didn't need to eat, despite the fact that she was capable of doing so. She however wished that she was able to taste. As a machine, she had no taste buds and thus no sense of taste. The humans that tried to describe taste to her likened it to trying to teach a blind man what color is. It was no secret that she wished to know what food and drink tasted like, but she also had the ability to see in the ultraviolet and infrared spectra of light, unlike humans.

Leila's attention was brought to a music player of some sort. It was an archaic device that her databanks told her was a jukebox. She started to try to figure out how it worked and instead leaned in and read some of the songs on it. "Jukebox, play music," she commanded.

A few people looked at her as she did this and the jukebox did nothing. She had no idea what was going on and just frustratingly pressed a button. Much to her surprise, but the surprise of no one else, music started to play. It was a pleasant tune and surprisingly very catchy. Unlike the usual hard rock of her era. The Reploid walked back to her seat and sat down as Pinkie Pie placed down a plate with a soda and a basket that held a hamburger and fries. The pink human leaned in and whispered, "I know you're unable to taste these things, so don't worry about telling me if they're good or not. Twilight told me that you told her that you don't have food like this where you come from."

Leila looked at Pinkie, wondering how she knew that she was unable to taste, but the waitress smiled, "It's just a hunch, silly-billy!" she said cheerfully.

Somehow the Maverick Hunter didn't believe it was a hunch, there was more to this pink human than met the eye. Just to be sure, the Reploid ran a self-diagnostic on herself to ensure that she wasn't being hacked. The results came back negative and she analyzed the drink and food before her. It would be safe for her systems to consume and would be converted like all food and drink into fuel for her microfusion core. This was all she needed to know and she started eating. Like all other food, this was flavorless to her. Even the drink was flavorless, though her internal sensors noted that there was carbon dioxide in the drink as well as abnormally high amounts of sugar. Her systems told her that this drink would be excessively unhealthy for a human, but since sugar was a quick energy source, it'd be perfect for her mechanical systems.

It didn't take her long to finish her meal and her systems told her that it added another few days of microfusion fuel to her fuel tank. This fuel was to be used in situations where her solar core wouldn't be able to function like underground or underwater. The Reploid grabbed a napkin and wiped her face off. Though she couldn't get zits like a human could, grease would cause her synthetic flesh to become grimy and unpleasant if she didn't clean it off.

Pinkie Pie rolled over with a milkshake and took the dirty dishes back to the kitchen. Leila scanned the dessert drink in the glass in front of her and noticed it had four ingredients. Milk, frozen cream, sugar, and strawberries. The whipped cream on top was just heavy cream and the cherry was self-explanatory. The Reploid had heard of cherries back where she came from, but they were extinct by the time she had been brought online. The red of the cherry and the pink of the milkshake fascinated her. She had never seen such things in her life before and the giggling of her waitress could be heard over the music.

She didn't know how to use a straw, so she just lifted the glass. Her touch sensors told her that the drink was cold, even if she couldn't feel it. Despite being cold, her systems were rated for arctic and even sub-arctic conditions, so the milkshake presented no harm to her. She tilted the glass in her mouth and started to just consume the dessert without a straw or a spoon, going as far as to consume the entire cherry. A purple girl with azure hair rushed over to her, "You're not supposed to consume the pit, ma'am!" she said in a rush.

Leila turned her attention to the girl in question, "I'm not?" she asked, confused.

A pout formed on the girl's face and then she started laughing, "We use seedless cherries in our shakes, ma'am. You're not going to get sick, though I'm not sure what the effects of eating the stem of a cherry is, it's probably nothing," she stated.

The Maverick hunter chuckled a bit, getting the idea of humor. "I see that you are definitely a friend of Pinkie. According to Twilight Sparkle, she enjoys good joke," she stated.

The girl wheeled away to go take another order and then the pink waitress rolled over with a pair of cupcakes, "I brought some more food for you!" she exclaimed.

Leila had already filled up her microfusion core's fuel reserves, but her body was capable of just eliminating the rest of the food that she would eat if she was already "full". She picked up a cupcake and ate the entire thing, paper included, much to the confusion of everyone and especially her waitress. Pinkie laughed nervously and picked up the other cupcake, taking the paper off of it, "You're not supposed to eat the paper, silly!" she stated as she handed the second cupcake to the machine.

Said Reploid took the cupcake and ate it as well. She had consumed over a hundred grams of sugar in the last ten minutes alone. This would be an excessive amount for a human, but she wasn't that fazed by it. Unlike the biological processes of humans which would send them through a high energy state called a sugar rush and then right back down to a low energy state known as a sugar crash, her systems would keep her functioning at a proper energy level. "I think I'm done, I can't eat anymore, but thank you for the food and the joke from your co-worker," she said politely.

A huge grin appeared on Pinkie's face, "You're very welcome, Leila!" she exclaimed as she bounced up and down a bit.

This caught the Reploid's attention, but she wrote it off as just Twilight Sparkle having told her friends what the Maverick Hunter's name was. She stood up and walked towards the door when a gruff voice yelled, "Hey! Are you going to pay for all that food!"

All she had was Energy Crystals and she knew that they were useless here. Fortunately for her, the pink waitress spoke up, "I'll pay for the food! I've already been paying from pocket for her dishes. She's a friend of mine!"

Leila couldn't help but grin at this and being called a friend, she walked back over to Pinkie Pie and extended her hand. The pink human grabbed her hand and they locked eyes as they shook hands. "Thank you, Pinkie, I won't forget your kind gesture," the Reploid said.

"Oh, anything to make a friend smile! I want to make as many people as I can happy! That's just who I am!" the waitress said excitedly.

The Maverick Hunter leaned in and lowered the volume of her voice so that only her new friend could hear her. "I wish there were more people like you in my world, maybe the world would've been a better place," she stated sorrowfully.

Pinkie instinctively grabbed the Reploid in a hug and Leila's systems told her that this human was putting far more pressure on her frame than a normal human was capable of doing. Though it wasn't dangerous for her, she noted that at this strength of a hug, it would likely cause bruising if not the breakage of bones. She returned the hug gently and the two broke it not long after. "I'll see you later, I guess," the Maverick Hunter stated.

"I can't wait to see you again! I'll stop by Twilight's place after work!" the excited pink human stated.

A smile crossed Leila's features as she turned away to head out the building, "I look forward to it," she said.

Once she left, the Reploid's chronometer told her that it was a few hours til sunset. So she had a bit more time before she had to return back to her home. Something inside of her was curious as to what different kinds of animals there were on this world, so she quickly referenced her map of the city and made her way to the park once more. Perhaps she would see birds that she didn't see the last time she was there. This very thought made her smile and she grew more hopeful for the future.

Chapter 5: The Animal Caretaker

It had been eight days since she had seen Pinkie Pie for the first time in her existence and Leila had finally decided to ask Twilight where a place that they keep animals at was. Fortunately for her, the scientist knew of a place where another friend of hers was working. Looking at the instructions that she wrote down in her memory banks scrolling across the top right of her vision while navigating with the admittedly rudimentary Global Positioning System that this world had, the Reploid had very little issue finding her way to the animal shelter. She entered the building and saw the most soft spoken human she had ever met, with pale yellow skin and pink hair. If it wasn't for her standing tall and speaking to all of the animals in a kind voice, the Maverick Hunter would've tried to take this girl to the hospital for jaundice.

"Excuse me, miss, but I was told that I could find a Fluttershy here. Would you know where she is?" the Reploid said as calmly as she could.

Since the shy human didn't hear her come in, this sudden sentence startled her and she hid behind a desk. Unfortunately for said human, the Reploid that was in the shelter with her had target tracking capabilities and was now looking at the desk that she hid behind. "I'm not here to hurt you or anyone else, I'm just looking for Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle sent me," the Maverick Hunter stated as gently as she could.

The human slowly peeked over the desk and looked at her with green eyes that looked unsure. "I heard what you did when you met Pinkie," she replied.

Leila acknowledged that and held up her right hand with one finger. With a command from her AI, she locked her left hand into hand mode. Until this setting was changed, she wouldn't be able to access the buster installed in that arm. "I can't change my hand into a buster anymore, I just locked that setting. If you want, I can detach my entire left arm assembly and slide it over to you, if that'll put you at ease," she said to try to defuse the situation

The pale yellow human could sense the sincerity in the Reploid's voice and climbed out of her hiding spot. "Um, I'm Fluttershy," she said, a bit quiet.

The Maverick Hunter's hearing was able to pick up and amplify quiet sounds. "Nice to meet you, Fluttershy," she said and then placed her hand on her own chest, "My name is Leila, I'm sure Twilight Sparkle has told you all about me and why I am here," she said to introduce herself.

"Oh, Leila. Um, I don't think there are any Mavericks around here. What makes a Reploid go Maverick anyhow?" Fluttershy asked, nervously.

The Maverick Hunter sighed, that wasn't a question she wanted to answer while she was learning about animal care. She walked over to the counter and leaned against it, "Reploids are complex beings. We are built to simulate human life, we can act, think, learn, and grow just like humans." She said before Fluttershy raised her hand.

This was an act that did not go unnoticed by the Reploid, "No, we do not start off as baby Reploids and grow into adult Reploids. Though I suppose a Reploid could be created as an infant and then get upgraded into different 'life stages' as they went on. What I mean by grow is that we mature like humans do," she explained.

Fluttershy lowered her hand as her question had been answered. "In the past, before Commander X used something known as the Mother Elf, Mavericks could be created by a computer virus that infected what is known as a DNA Soul, which would corrupt the Reploid into doing the bidding of the virus program. Second Generation Reploids were built with a Chameleon Chip also known as a copy chip in order to get around this weakness. We Third Generation Reploids have no such protection, but we have strong Anti-Virus protocols built in. Second Generation Reploids, having a copy of Sigma's data can just go Maverick whenever they want. Certain First Generation Reploids and a handful of Third Generation ones can do the same. However, before you ask, no. I do not have that capability. Shorts in our cognitive neural network could cause it to happen, as could a significantly strong blow to the head if we were unarmored. On top of that, the Baby Elves that have been appearing where I came from lately could turn Reploids into Mavericks. Also Fluttershy, you don't have to worry, it'd take something like a full tree branch to fall onto my head to damage my internal systems without my helmet," The Reploid finished explaining.

This put the timid human at ease, there was nothing in the animal shelter that could hit with that much force. She walked over to one of the habitats in the shelter and started to pet the hamster inside. This piqued the curiosity of Leila who walked over and pointed towards the rodent, "What's that?" she asked.

The pink haired human looked surprised at this question, "You don't have hamsters where you come from?" she asked.

The look on Leila's face turned from a slightly annoyed expression to one of childlike wonderment. "No, I haven't ever seen many of these animals in the entire time I've been online. Many of these creatures went extinct around fifty years ago, it's so interesting to see all of them here in one place when I've only seen them in books and pictures," she said in a tone that suggested that she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Fluttershy giggled and removed her hand from the cage, "Go ahead and pet her. She's very friendly," she told her guest.

The Reploid stuck her hand in the cage and gently started to pet the hamster. Her sensors told her that the fur was soft and the animal didn't at all seem to care whether it was a robot touching it or a human. This sensation and situation were surreal to the Maverick Hunter who had never once thought that she would be able to do this.

A sudden noise caught her attention, it was nothing more than a rustling and her head turned to see what it was. Inside of a large area were a few rabbits and one of them had entered the litter box. Leila was curious about these creatures and slowly withdrew her hand from the hamster cage to walk over towards the rabbits. It was a surprise to her when the creature jumped out of the litter box and dashed towards the safety of shelter. This saddened the Reploid, who could only release a sigh. "Oh, Rabbits are prey animals in the wild. Let me talk to them," the pale yellow human told her.

The animal caretaker walked into the rabbit pen and sat down, "It's okay little rabbits, Leila here isn't going to hurt you. I know that she can be very unfamiliar to you, but she's not a predator and she's not an enemy. She's our friend and she just wants to see you guys because where she comes, there aren't any rabbits," she said gently as her necklace glowed.

The five rabbits in the pen all exited their hiding spots and moved over to Fluttershy who motioned towards the Reploid. The Maverick Hunter didn't need to be told a second time. She slowly walked into the pen and was sure to not make any sudden moves as she slowly sat down. The five rabbits that were around their caretaker now moved towards the machine instead. They were very curious about her and started sniffing around to get an idea of what and who she was. One of the rabbits hopped up into Leila's lap and she started to pet it gently as she could to not stress the animal in question or worse, harm it.

"You're very good at handling animals for someone who hasn't ever seen them before, Leila," Fluttershy observed.

The Maverick Hunter laughed a bit to herself, "Twilight wouldn't let me come over here unless I had studied animal care for an entire week. Since I don't require sleep, I had been doing that for about one hundred and sixty-eight hours, thirty-seven minutes and twenty-two point nine five seconds before I made my way over here. I know how to care for animals from insects to bears. Though I would rather not have to deal with a bear, they're quite powerful and I don't want to figure out if a bear or a Reploid is stronger," she informed the pale yellow human.

Leila absentmindedly started to scratch the rabbit behind the ears and just lose herself in the reality that she was surrounded by so many different animals. She could hear dogs, cats, birds, other types of rodents. She could see from where she was some species of snakes and arachnids. It was a rather interesting gathering of creatures from around the world. She pointed to one of the birds specifically, "What's that one called?" she asked.

"Oh, that's a scarlet macaw. Like all parrots, she is very long lived and very intelligent. They can also learn how to mimic human speech," the caretaker answered.

"I've never seen a scarlet macaw before. I know about the blue-and-yellow macaws, those are surprisingly common where I come from, especially in the Amazon. But this species hasn't been seen in the wild or captivity for over a hundred years at least. That's when the last recorded sighting of one was written down, though the image data was too corrupted to show me what it looked like," the Reploid said in amazement.

The rabbits, almost as if to sense her intentions, got off the Maverick Hunter and allowed her to leave the pen. She walked over to the cage with the scarlet macaw and registered its image data just in case she were able to return to her world. But she was also amazed at the sheer beauty of the bird in question. The bright yellow against the dark blue and the vivid red, with just a small tinge of green where the yellow and blue met. The bird looked at her with the same curiosity, almost as if it knew that she wasn't a human. "Did you know that parrots like this are capable of seeing into at least part of the ultraviolet spectrum of light?" she asked.

Fluttershy nodded, "Yes, it's rather interesting that birds can see wavelengths that humans can't. Sometimes I wonder what the world would look like if I could see like a bird," she stated.

Leila chuckled a little, "Well, everything looks different in the UV spectrum. In pure ultraviolet, everything looks exactly the same except with tones of blue as the only color. If I use my color vision in conjunction with UV, the grays, whites and blacks that you see turn purplish for me. For humans, this would be an interesting way to perceive the world, but it's just how I perceive it every day. I can also see in infrared, but that's really just one giant blob of black or gray depending on the ambient temperature and all sources of heat just look like generic blobs shaped vaguely like whatever is emitting that heat," she explained.

The animal caretaker chuckled at this and then suddenly remembered something, "My shift is ending soon and I've got homework tonight. If you'd like, we could meet up tomorrow while I'm here and I can let you handle some more of the animals and we can discuss them. I'm sure you'd enjoy that," she said to the Reploid.

The Maverick Hunter couldn't deny that, she wanted to get to know all of these different animals. Her curiosity was almost like a child exploring their own house for the first time. She wanted to gather as much information as she could in case she was ever able to find a way back to where she came from. But in case she didn't, she'd at least be able to see all of these wonderful creatures. "Thank you, Fluttershy. I would like that very much," she responded.

The two of them smiled and left the building. With an understanding nod, the two of them parted ways and Leila hoped that like the others she had met, she would be able to consider Fluttershy her friend.

Chapter 6: The Farmer

Leila had spent the morning running as she did normally, but she found herself in front of a farmhouse that was a deep red. She noted that with the ability to see in Ultraviolet, the driveway looked purple to her instead of its usual gray. The stairs and the railings were supposed to be white, but to her eyes, they were a bright purple, almost neon. The Reploid switched to color vision only mode, so that she could see it as humans could. However, since she couldn't tell if the building was occupied, she switched to infrared. Color all vanished around her and she could see four vaguely human shaped blobs of white. Knowing now that the building was occupied, she returned to her visible light mode and walked up the stairs. The Maverick Hunter's hand closed into a fist and she lightly knocked against the door with it.

There was silence for a moment, but then she heard a voice yell out behind the door, "Applejack! Get the door, would ya!"

"Ah'm on mah way, Granny!" another voice yelled out.

Leila could hear boots hitting the ground and the noise was getting closer. She was thankful that at least this time, Twilight Sparkle had uploaded the images of Applejack and Sunset Shimmer into her memory banks. The door opened to reveal a light tan human with blond hair and green eyes. Referencing the images, she recognized this as Applejack. "What can ah do ye fer?" the farmgirl asked.

The Reploid extended her hand with a smile, "Hi, my name is Leila and you're one of Twilight's friends. Applejack if I'm not wrong," she introduced herself.

Applejack recognized the name that she had just heard as something that Twilight had told her she had found a while back. "Well don't just stand there, come on in. Any friend of Twilight's is a friend of the Apples!" she stated proudly.

The Maverick Hunter smiled as the farmgirl stepped out from in front of the door and then walked into the farmhouse. It was rustic for sure, reminding her of the ancient images that had been done with paints and pencils. Much to her surprise, there was an analog clock. Something that belonged in a museum in her time rather than any sort of wall. "We were just about ta have breakfast! Ya can join us if ya'd like!" the farmgirl said, excitedly.

"Applejack! Who is it?" called out another voice.

"Oh, Granny, it's just a friend of Twilight's!" the farmgirl replied just as loudly.

Leila walked into the kitchen, following what her nasal sensors told her was the chemical compounds that created the scent of food. She saw a stocky elderly green woman standing in the kitchen with her white hair in a bun. This surprised the Reploid and she once again started to wish that she could taste something. She then started to wonder what the world of taste was like and what foods were like to those who did have a sense of taste. She was able to detect the texture and the temperature of what she put in her mouth, but that was it. "I'm not hungry," she said politely, hiding the fact that she was a robot. But the truth was, she was incapable of feeling hungry.

"Nonsense there youngin, ya look like ya ain't been eatin well enough! Yer nothin' but skin and bones!" said the elderly woman to her.

Applejack stepped in, "Truth is Granny, she's not organic like us. She's a machine that's just built ta look and act exactly like a human. She even has free will accordin to Twilight. Unlike us, she doesn't need ta eat food, she gets all of her energy from the sun," she said.

Granny Smith walked over and squinted at the Maverick Hunter, "If yer really a machine, Ah want ya ta prove it. Where's yer harvestin tools?" she asked.

Leila turned her head to look at the farmgirl who shrugged and then she turned her head back to see the shorter elderly lady squinting at her still. She sighed and placed her hand on her forehead, "I'm not a farming Reploid. I was built with the specifications of a police Reploid, but I instead decided to join the Maverick Hunters to better protect people and innocent Reploids. I tend to keep my being a machine on the down low because I don't wish to cause a panic among the people of this world. I don't have any farming protocols installed anyhow, so I couldn't farm even if I wanted to. However, I do have the capacity to learn and evolve my programming, so I could learn farming," she confessed.

"Is that so?" the elderly woman asked suspiciously.

The Maverick Hunter nodded honestly, "Yes."

"Well Ah'll be, a machine that can learn farmin, That'll be a real help around the farm," Granny Smith said with a smile.

Applejack grabbed Leila's shoulder, "Granny's a bit excited ta hear that ya can learn farmin, but the question is, do ya want ta? Cause Ah can teach ya after breakfast," she said with a soft smile.

Leila turned her head and nodded with a smile and left the kitchen to go out back to look for the hydroponics buildings. Much to her confusion and bewilderment, there weren't any. There were just fields of crops and orchids of apple trees. This was something that she knew existed at one time, but according to historical texts, this fell out of favor around the year of 2096. The last farmland was rendered unusable by the Eurasia incident and the Nightmare incident that had followed. She sat down under the shade of an apple tree and just watched the wind blow all the different plants gently to pass the time.

Though earlier models of robots couldn't experience boredom, Reploids could, and Leila was starting to feel as such as the time went on and she didn't have much to do. She took her hat off and placed it on the ground as she stood up, letting the wind blow through her hair. She absentmindedly unlocked her buster functionality and opened a compartment in her left arm where she stored the elemental chips that she had received during her fights with the Mavericks. Though many of them were discontinued and only affected her buster. The main three that she used, the Fire, Ice, and Thunder chips also affected her resistance to that specific attack element, while giving her a weakness to another element.

It wasn't a perfect system and was stated to be one of several prototypes of a system that they were working on to allow Reploids to be able to change the element of their tools to make them able to be more effective at jobs they learn later on, even if they weren't built for it. She grabbed a Light Chip and just started to toss it up and down to give herself some sort of mental stimulation.

"Now Ah ain't figured ya ta be the sort that gets bored easily," said Applejack from behind her.

Leila caught the chip in her right hand and slotted it back into the storage spot. The compartment on her arm closed itself and sealed tight once more as she turned her head towards the farmgirl, "You were in there for an hour and there weren't many animals out here to see. I needed some form of stimulation for my mind," she replied.

The farmgirl laughed and walked over to the Reploid, patting her on the shoulder, "Follow me to the barn and we'll grab some of the tools you'll need in order to prepare the soil for the next crops," she said.

Leila nodded and followed Applejack, but something bothered her. No one where she came from did intensive farming like this. When the two arrived at the barn, the Reploid finally decided to say what was on her mind, "Why aren't there any hydroponics here?"

The blond farmer looked at her with a mix of confusion and worry, "Sugarcube, Ah don't know what hydroponics are, mah family's been tendin ta this land fer generations," she said in response.

The Maverick Hunter accessed her database, "Where I come from, all of our food is grown in buildings which are more compact but taller than any farmland. This was done because of the population increase from seven point four billion people to roughly fourteen billion by the year two thousand and ninety-two. There wasn't enough land to have wide farms and feed everyone on the planet, while protecting the native species of the land. So farmers switched from intensive farming to hydroponics. Some farmers however remained on their old farmlands until the Eurasia incident which wiped out the rest of the farmlands. When the humans went underground, they started to rely purely on hyrdoponic farming and aeroponic farming, which is them growing plants without the use of soil or any sort of aggregate medium," she reported.

Applejack's face twisted further in confusion, "You mentioned the Eurasia incident, what was that?" she asked.

Leila accessed that part of her memory banks, "In the early twenty-second century, a pair of Mavericks known as Sigma and Dynamo attempted to crash a space colony into the Earth, but they weren't able to succeed in doing so, being stopped by a legendary hero called Zero. The space colony had been abandoned prior to this and was destroyed, however, with it being in low earth orbit... debris rained down and caused significant damage to the side of the planet that it was facing. This also kicked up dust that circled around the planet, limiting the sunlight and lowering temperatures," she answered.

"Ah see, well Ah'm glad that yer world still was able ta survive and keep the long history and tradition of farmin alive," the farmgirl replied with a smile.

The two of them looked at each other and shared a smile between them, "Secretly, I wish that I could've helped with the recovery efforts back then. It's a rather fascinating read when you go back through the historical documents. Just imagining all of the Reploid heroes that were around back then that made it so that the Earth was habitable again for humanity. Perhaps I would've been able to make a difference and the Earth would've been just a little bit better," Leila said as her smile turned wistful.

Applejack chuckled a little at the machine's optimism, "Ya got a big heart, Leila. Ah hope ya will be able to make a difference in this world. Ah can still teach ya farmin techniques if ya'd like," she offered.

"Do you have any animals?", the Reploid asked, her face lighting up.

The farmgirl nodded and pointed towards the stables, "If ya would follow me, Ah'll show ya the different animals we got here," she stated with a smirk.

The Maverick Hunter followed the farmer and the two could hear all sorts of animal sounds. They were familiar to Applejack, but to Leila, they were completely foreign. Animals that she had never heard or seen, but weren't extinct where she came from. One of the things that humans had taken underground with them during the Eurasia Incident were their farm animals. Upon entering the stable, she saw a number of horses and a few cows. She walked up to one of the cows and placed her hand on its head to be greeted with a mooing sound.

"If ya need to be shown where everything is, Ah can help ya with that. Just holler, Ah'm gonna be workin out in the fields," Applejack told her.

"Alright," Leila responded.

As the farmer left the stables, the Reploid watched the different animals, it was always so much better to see them up close than it was to see them in pictures. They looked and seemed different from the still images that she had seen before. She let a laugh go before she turned to the door of the stable and noticed the sun had risen above the doors. It was still morning and she had plenty of time to spend with these wonderful creatures. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Fluttershy ever came over here to spend time with the animals and help Applejack out. She would ask her the next time she saw her, but for now she turned her head back to the cow she was petting and a soft smile crept onto her face.

Chapter 7: The Former Bully

Three weeks had passed since she arrived to this world and Leila was starting to get used to how the world and its tech level worked. Twilight Sparkle had been recently introducing her to cellphones and teaching her how to call people she knew. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was better than nothing. However, she also learned the schedules of each of Twilight's friends. They were still students and on most days went to school, leaving the Reploid to her own devices, but when they were out of school, she'd go assist one of them at their jobs. However on this day, she chose not to. She instead decided to visit the last of Twilight's friends. The directions that were given to her allowed her to find the house without any issue.

The Maverick Hunter knocked on the door lightly, something was eating away at her, something that she couldn't tell any of the others. As she usually was on her missions, her vocal synthesizer was turned off. This made her incapable of making any vocalizations. This was a sign of how serious she felt this situation was. Her hearing told her that someone was coming towards the door, but they were wearing mid-heel boots. The lock clicked open and the Reploid turned her voice synthesizer back on. The door opened to reveal a light amber human with red and yellow striped hair and cyan eyes. "Uh, hi. You're the robot that Twilight told me about, right?" the human said.

"Yeah... I don't have time for small talk. I have to discuss with you something important," Leila replied.

This confused Sunset Shimmer, she wasn't prepared for something like this, but nonetheless, she stepped out of the way to allow her guest to enter her house. The Maverick Hunter walked into the place, noting that it was very quaint. The first thing she noted was the loft to her left with a desk and computer underneath it. The entire place was small for a human dwelling, but where she came from, she saw smaller dwellings for Reploids. Leila walked over to the stairs and sat down on them so that she'd be eye level with the human.

"So what is it you wish to talk about with me?" asked the student.

The Reploid closed her eyes and sighed, "Twilight Sparkle doesn't know of one of my functions. If they are at her lab, I can summon my armor and my weapons. I'm telling you this because I trust you to do what's right if the time comes," she stated.

Sunset arched a brow, she was confused, but she folded her arms and was willing to hear her guest out.

"I know how you once turned into a demon, how you were once corrupted by a desire for power. If you were a Reploid, you would've been labeled as a Maverick. But you came back from this with the help of the others. You became kind and you wanted to believe in friendship. You later on regained your confidence and renounced your past. You proved your strength to everyone, you showed everyone that you truly had redeemed yourself. Then you later got a geode that allowed you to see the past of others. See what had been bothering them and see why they feel the way they do. You became more than who you were, you chose to be different and that is why I trust you with this," Leila explained.

Sunset was surprised, this was the first time that anyone had spoken about her past and even her being a demon without being accidentally insensitive and trying to say "no offense". Instead, she felt like she was being complemented on overcoming this part of herself, showing true strength in the process. Her gaze softened and she leaned against the wall with a smile, "Thanks, that means a lot to me," she replied.

The Maverick Hunter nodded and held out her hand, closing her eyes and concentrating on her beam saber. Twilight wasn't at the lab when she left, having told her that she was going to spend time with Rainbow Dash to see just how fast the cyan human could run with her geode as she called it. The hilt of the weapon teleported in a beam of light into her hand.

"That doesn't look like a weapon to me, looks like a bar of metal that you just teleported here," Sunset observed.

Leila opened her eyes and held the hilt pointing straight up with her arm bent in front of her. The triangular blue blade appeared as she activated the weapon. The human searched the Reploid's face for any sign of emotion, but there wasn't any. "I had this weapon given to me when I first joined the Maverick Hunters, it is my own personal beam saber. We are allowed to choose the color of our blades, I chose blue, because I didn't feel like I could live up to the legend that was Zero. His green Z-Saber is legendary, it's one of what we call the Ten Shining Weapons. Our beam sabers are built in the image of it, but aren't as powerful," she explained.

The Maverick Hunter deactivated the beam saber and looked into the eyes of the student that stood before her. "I didn't come here to tell you about the Ten Shining Weapons or my own arsenal. I've come here to make a request of you. We Reploids are almost human like, in fact, we Third Generation Reploids are said to be one step removed from human. But what makes us so advanced can also lead to us becoming Mavericks. A Maverick is a Reploid that has become a danger to humanity. In my world there were two major threats that would turn us Maverick. The Sigma Virus, which was eradicated when Commander X used the Mother Elf to restore the programming of infected Reploids and the Baby Elves, copies of the Dark Elf that had been going around for a while," she said firmly.

Sunset was confused, and she reached out to touch the Reploid to use her geode power. Leila didn't know what was going on, but allowed this, being shocked when the girl's eyes started glowing white. The red and yellow haired student let go soon after, "You've been through a lot more than you have been willing to share with my friends. Why haven't you told them the whole truth?" she asked.

Guilt wracked the Maverick Hunter's mind, she had watched many of the Reploids she had called friends become Mavericks before her very eyes and was forced to kill them. Even one of her "brothers", a Reploid that came before her with the same creator had went Maverick and she was forced to put him down. Leila looked down at the beam saber in her hand, the same weapon she had used to destroy him. "Because they don't need to know. They're entirely innocent, unlike you or I. You say that your past isn't today, but your past is still part of what shaped the you of today. Same with me, but unlike you, I don't get the luxury of forgetting, I don't get the luxury of disregarding it. I have to live with the memories of what I've done for the rest of my existence," she said.

The Reploid felt a hand on her shoulder and looked back up to see Sunset Shimmer standing there, "You can move on from your past. If you're as close to human as you say you are, it's possible. You can do it," the student told the machine confidently.

Leila placed the beam saber into her purse, because of the fail-safe mechanism in the device, it wouldn't be able to activate if it wasn't being held in the hand of a Reploid or a human. This prevented it from harming its user if being stored and from harming innocents if it wasn't being held. She then looked down at her own feet and sighed, "Sunset Shimmer, if I go Maverick, I want you to retire me," she requested.

This took the human by complete surprise, she hadn't expected this from the Reploid. "But I thought you couldn't go Maverick because the causes that were there in your world aren't here," she stated, her voice cracking a bit from shock.

The Maverick Hunter looked up at Sunset, making eye contact and not daring to try to look away, "Reploids can go Maverick if our cognitive systems are damaged or for any number of reasons. If I was back where I came from, I could possibly get repairs done, but considering you've seen what we've been going through for the last two years... you could understand that the much more likely scenario is that I'd be retired. We don't have the time and resources to repair every Reploid that goes Maverick because of a defect in their cognitive systems, even if it was caused by external damage," she said, her voice firm.

The student looked away, "I don't know if I could do it. I mean, you're basically a living, breathing creature!" she protested.

Leila became annoyed at this and her tone shifted to show this, "Listen Sunset, if I ever become Maverick then there's a high likelihood that I will go after you and your friends first. According to the information that Twilight Sparkle has given me, you would be the greatest threat out of everyone and everything in the world. Short of natural disasters of course. I might look human, I might even act human. But I am nothing more than an incredibly advanced machine. I might be capable of feeling emotion, I might be capable of making my own decisions, I might even be capable of eating and drinking, but at the end of the day, my brain is still a computer and I will choose the course of action I feel is the most logical. Ridding the world of what I would consider the greatest threat to my safety would be the most logical thing I'd do if I was a Maverick," she replied.

Sunset Shimmer sighed, "So if you went Maverick, you'd try to harm my friends?" she asked.

The Maverick Hunter looked away, "I've seen it too often. Many of my friends who turned immediately came for me because I was the greatest threat to them at the time. I just... don't want the same thing to happen to me. But I've got to be prepared for the possibility. Those six are the best friends I've ever had, but you have to realize that I was a Reploid fighting other Reploids and even if I was put on the back foot, I had other Reploids to come save me. There's none of that here, I'm the only one. If I go Maverick, you seven are the only ones with the potential to stop me, you have to understand this," she said in a wounded tone.

The human nodded, she didn't like it, but she could hear the truth in the Reploid's words. On top of this, she had witnessed the events of the last two years. Leila had lost dozens if not hundreds of friends, many of them had to be put down by her own hand. There was silence between the two of them for a couple of minutes as Sunset contemplated this. But, she took out her note book and wrote a reminder of this down, "If you turn Maverick, I promise that my friends and I will try to stop you and if we are able to, we will retire you," she said firmly.

This put the Maverick Hunter's mind at ease, she was no longer worried about the world being in danger if something happened to cause her to go Maverick. The world had heroes that it didn't even know existed and they would be the ones to try to stop her. She stood up with a smile and placed her hand on Sunset's shoulder, looking into the cyan eyes of the student. "Thank you, Sunset. I hope the day never comes, but in my line of work, it's best to be prepared for the worst outcome, but always hope for the best," she said with a weak smile

Sunset Shimmer returned the weak smile, the two of them had an understanding and a promise between them. She was intent to keep it til the day she died, no matter how far off that was. The former unicorn watched as Leila started to walk towards the door, but felt that she needed to say one more thing. "Leila?"

The Reploid turned back before she could grab the doorknob, "Yeah?"

The student gave a thumbs up, "Let's not dwell on what could be, and just try to be friends, okay?" she requested.

Leila smiled and nodded, returning the thumbs up. "Friends it is,"she replied.

The two waved to each other and the Maverick Hunter left the house. Her worries had been taken care of and she felt like a huge weight had been taken off of her shoulders. The one month anniversary of her arriving to this world was coming up and she was going to ask everyone what they wanted to do for that day, but that would happen later. For now, she wanted to get back to the lab before Twilight and return the beam saber to where it was before.

Chapter 8: Equestria Land

The one month anniversary had finally arrived and Leila had received a ticket for Equestria Land from Pinkie Pie the day before. She had been told to dress for the occasion and try to wear something more casual, so she had thrown on some blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and black sneakers. Her chronometer told her that it was time for the others to show up, with Applejack driving, but Twilight had seemingly not woken up all morning. The Reploid walked over to Twilight's door and noticed her mother, Twilight Velvet approaching. "I'll wake her up, ma'am. It would seem that her alarm clock had not rang this morning," Leila stated.

The gray skinned woman looked at the Reploid, confused as to how she would wake her daughter. But the Maverick Hunter had her ways, a light knocking on the door happened first. When that didn't get a response, she instead switched to her thermal vision to see if Twilight was in the room. There were heat signatures, but none of them were human shaped, "She's not in there," she stated.

Twilight Velvet looked at the Reploid, confused, "How do you know?" she asked.

Leila switched back to her visible light mode and opened the door to reveal that the room was empty. "Your daughter told you that I can see in the Infrared spectrum, right?" she inquired.

The gray skinned woman shook her head, "No, she didn't. But that is interesting to say the least. Well she'll probably be in her lab. Applejack is waiting outside," she informed the Reploid.

The Maverick Hunter received a call in her head at that exact moment, "Hey Leila, Twilight's already in the bus, come on and we'll take you to the theme park!" the call hung up before she could respond.

"She's already on the bus, I promise to get her back safe, ma'am," the Reploid said to the human.

As Leila started to walk away, she turned around suddenly and hugged Twilight Velvet, "Thanks for letting me stay here. You've been like the mother I never had," she said.

The purple and white haired woman smiled and hugged back, "You're a bit too old to be my daughter, but I'm glad you see me like that," she replied.

The Maverick Hunter broke the hug and chuckled as she walked towards the front door, "I'm only twenty, you know," she stated in a cheeky tone.

The two shared a laugh at the tone as Leila left the house and walked to the bus, her hair was in a ponytail, but that was so that it wouldn't get caught in anything. "Woah, I didn't think you'd be able to dress so casually, Leila!" yelled Rainbow Dash as the Reploid got on the bus.

Leila smiled as she took her seat and Applejack started driving, her friends started chatting among each other while she looked out the window at the scenery as it went by. Twilight Sparkle suddenly sat down next to her and she could feel the sensors in her left hand go off, something had been placed in it. "You'll need this, it's money. I know you spoke of Zeni where you came from, but this is the money we use. Dad gave me enough for both of us to do whatever we want, okay?" she said to the Maverick Hunter.

There wasn't an initial response as the Reploid other than her pocketing the money as she was still deep in thought. This discouraged the purple scientist who frowned, "If you don't want to talk, that's fine..." she said sadly.

Everyone in the bus looked at this situation as Twilight started to get up, but Leila gently grabbed her wrist, "I was thinking about a lot of things. Your family gave me a home when I had nowhere else to go, when I was just someone who by all records didn't even really exist here. I told your mother that she's just like the mom I never had. Twilight, you're like the little sister I always wanted. Unfortunately, I'm the only female Reploid that my creator built," she said without turning from the window.

Though no one could see her face directly, the expression in the reflection was one of loneliness. The smile was sad. The purple scientist sat back down and smiled, "Well, even if mom doesn't think of you as her daughter, I'll think of you as my big sister. How about that?" she offered.

The Reploid nodded, "Thank you, Twilight. You are very kind," she said with a genuine smile this time.

"We're your friends, Leila. Don't ever forget that, darling," called out Rarity.

"Yeah! We're always going to be together!" chimed in Rainbow Dash.

"You're a kind-hearted robot, Leila," said Fluttershy in her usual quiet voice.

"We're going to have lots of parties and fun!" called out Pinkie Pie.

"These guys will forgive just about anything, you don't have any reason to worry," Sunset Shimmer said as she sat in the seat behind the Reploid.

Leila started laughing, it was almost as if she had found her home. "Hey, let's say we all take a picture together before we go our own ways in the theme park to do our own things?" she offered.

"Why that's a great idea, Leila! Ah'm sure Twilight or Rarity has a camera of some sort," said Applejack as they pulled into the parking lot.

The farmgirl parked the bus and all eight of them exited. Twilight Sparkle set up a camera drone to take a picture of all of them and they got in position. From right to left stood Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Leila, Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. The fashionista was smiling while posing for the camera, the animal caretaker had a shy smile on her face, the scientist was putting bunny ears behind the Reploid's head while smiling, the Maverick Hunter had her left arm draped around Sunset Shimmer's shoulder as she smiled while winking and throwing up a peace sign, the pale amber skinned girl was laughing at this with a smile on her face, the athlete winked at the camera with a confident grin, the waitress somehow produced confetti and threw it into the air while smiling, and finally the farmgirl just had a smile on her face and a hand on her stetson.

The eight friends stood there until the drone took the photograph. "Now, no matter what happens, we'll all have something to remember each other by," Twilight said with a smirk.

The eight of them enter the theme park and all went their separate ways. Leila was surprised to see that all of the rides we free, this caused her to wonder why Twilight put money into her hand. Then she ran into the arcade, there were games of skill here to win a prize which cost money to play. She saw Applejack and Rarity get prepared to start a game in which you fired water at a target to inflate a balloon until it popped. It looked like fun to the Reploid, so she walked over and paid the dollar fee to join.

"No offense, Leila, but I'm the best at this game!" Rainbow Dash taunted.

"Now now, Rainbow Dash, we all know that Ah am the best," retorted Applejack.

The bell rang and Leila wordlessly locked onto the target with her water gun and kept a steady stream on the target. Her balloon inflated the fastest and popped first. The two girls looked stunned at Leila who tapped her head as she took her prize, a giant stuffed dark blue pony, "I can run calculations faster than either of you can," she stated with a confident smirk.

The other two just watched as the Reploid walked off with the prize she had won. Neither of them could say a word, but the Maverick Hunter was happy. She then saw a booth where you could throw baseballs at a stack of three bottles. She noticed a prize that she wanted to win, it was another stuffed pony, but this one resembled Twilight Sparkle for some reason. She placed her stuffed plush on the counter and placed one dollar on the counter. The person behind it gave her three baseballs. As she felt the baseball in her hand, her positronic brain started to calculate the exact speed and trajectory she would need to throw the ball in order to knock down all three of the bottles. She threw the ball according to her calculations and failed to knock down any of them. "May I hold one of the bottles?" she asked.

The person behind the counter grabbed one of the bottles from a different pyramid and handed it to her. The sensors in her hand told her exactly why it didn't work. These weren't weighted down with rocks or lead, they were solid iron bottles. She placed the bottle on the counter, picked up the second ball and threw it according to the new calculations her mind spat out. All of the balls fell down and she handed the third baseball to the person behind the counter, picking the plush toy that she had wanted to win.

Carrying two plush toys now, she wandered to another booth. This one was a test of strength. Something that would be no issue for her at all. Leila smirked and handed her plush toys off to the person running it as well as her two dollar fee and grabbed the sledge hammer. She walked up to the sensor and calculated exactly how hard she would need to hit the sensor to trigger the bell that she noticed was exactly thirty feet up. Not very many humans she knew of would be able to ring that bell, but if she were to hit the sensor with as much force as she could impart on it, she would break the sensor and the machine by extension.

She finally swung the sledgehammer and the lights traveled up the column, followed by a ding sound as the bell was triggered. She picked her prize, a plush that resembled Rainbow Dash. A quick text message to Twilight had a few drones come pick up the three plush toys. But Leila was starting to get bored with these games of skill and strength, they were too easy for her. However, something caught her eye. It was a jar of jelly beans, a prize that Pinkie Pie would love. She walked over to the jar and looked at it, analyzing it perfectly to see exactly the number of beans were in it.

"Do you have a guess, ma'am?" the operator asked.

The Maverick Hunter smirked, "This gallon jar contains approximately seven hundred and fifty two jelly beans," she said.

The operator was stunned, "That's absolutely correct. You win the jar of jelly beans!" he said, handing the jar to the Reploid.

"Aww, but I wanted to guess how much were in the jar!" whined Pinkie Pie from behind her.

Leila turned around and handed the jar to her friend, "I won this for you," she said.

The pink human suddenly hugged the Maverick Hunter, "Aw! Thank you! You're the best, Leila!" she exclaimed.

"You're welcome, Pinkie," said the smiling Reploid as she returned the hug.

The two broke their hug and the Maverick Hunter wandered off to a group of Skee-Ball machines which Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle were all playing. The three of them were trying to get a prize, and none of them paid attention to the fourth that had arrived until the Reploid rolled the first ball, hitting the 100 ring. All three of them watched in awe as Leila consistently hit the 100 ring. None of them had seen a perfect game before and their friend made it look easy. She picked a prize and handed it to Sunset and then played another perfect game and picked another prize to hand to Fluttershy. She played a third perfect game and handed that prize to Twilight. All three of them were just absolutely stunned by this.

"These games are too easy, I'm a bit bored. I saw the roller coaster and while I figure it would be exciting for you guys, I've been on faster vehicles that did more exciting maneuvers. This place isn't very exciting. I think I'm going to try the Ferris Wheel, I figure that if I go on that ride, I'll get a beautiful view of the city," the Reploid stated to her friends.

None of them were able to recover from the fact that their friend just blitzed her way through Skee-Ball as if it was nothing. This allowed Leila to make her way to the Ferris Wheel, where she met Rarity. "Oh hello, Darling. You don't seem like you're having a good time, is something wrong?" the fashionista asked.

The Reploid shrugged, "My positronic brain makes the games of this place far too easy for me. I'm able to calculate exactly what I need to do in order to win them all. The roller coaster doesn't look all that exciting and I've seen worse things than anything a haunted house could throw at me. I guess I'm just desensitized to things," she said a bit sad.

"Don't worry about it, the Ferris Wheel has the most beautiful view of the city that you'll ever see," Rarity replied.

The two of them silently climbed into the same car and watched out the window as the Ferris Wheel moved. It was just as the fashionista had said, the view of the city would be breathtaking if Reploids were capable of breathing. The city was so unlike the sprawling high rise metropolises of her world. Everything was so low to the ground and unique. It was as if there was a culture and identity to the people of this world that the people where she came from didn't have. All Leila could do was stare at the city in awe and if she were capable of crying, she would have shed a tear right then and there.

The Ferris Wheel descended and they got off of it to meet with the rest of the group. The Maverick Hunter didn't want to dampen their fun, but it was about time for all of them to head back anyhow. Leila had checked her chronometer and noticed that four hours had passed to her surprise. "Don't worry Leila, we can always come back some time if you'd like," Rainbow Dash offered.

The Reploid smiled, "I'd like that, as long as I'm spending time with my friends, even if I find the games and rides boring, I'm having a good time," she said.

"That's the spirit, how about we all get something to eat on the way back to our homes," Sunset said with a smile.

Everyone agreed to this and got on the bus. The eight of them hoped that they would all be able to return to Equestria Land soon, but with the conflicting schedules and money issues, they wouldn't be able to return for the rest of the month. However, they were going to make the rest of the day together as special as they could. The eight of them were inseparable friends now, Leila finally finding her place in the world. A place that she belonged and could fit in and be happy. The thoughts of possibly going Maverick were pushed far into the back of her mind for the first time since she had arrived.

Chapter 9: Maverick

Two weeks had passed since they went to Equestria Land, Leila had volunteered to help the Apple family out with a sale of theirs and was silently on patrol for a couple of people known as Flim and Flam. For the last half hour, there was no sign of anyone on the farm lands, everything was going absolutely smoothly to the surprise of everyone. However, something didn't sit right with the Reploid, she didn't feel like she needed her armor as she was told that the two brothers weren't much of a threat. The quiet that was so prevalent in the farmland was soon replaced by two people talking to each other. The Maverick Hunter knew that no one else would be able to hear it, so she decided to investigate on her own. She saw two brilliant amber humans with strong jawlines and one with a mustache near a tree.

"Come on, brother! We need to get this tree down!" said the one without the mustache.

"I agree!" said the other one.

Though she didn't need to ever clear her throat, she was capable of synthesizing the sound. Which she did to get the attention of the two hoodlums who both snapped their heads to her location. "The Flim Flam brothers I assume. Come to swindle my friend out of what's rightfully her's, again," she stated.

The mustached one pulled out a document, "We are the rightful owners of this farmland and everything on it!" he said, hoping that she was far enough away that she wouldn't be able to read it.

The Maverick Hunter's focus zoomed in on the document which was revealed to be nothing more than a bunch of squiggly lines on a piece of paper. She arched a brow, "Uh huh. I'm fairly certain the Mayor would love to see that document," she told them.

The two brothers laughed nervously and then started to cut down the tree faster. Being unarmed aside from a buster, Leila didn't have any way to intimidate them. She didn't want to reveal her ace in the hole just yet. So she closed her eyes tried to concentrate on the Buster Shot to bring it here as the two brothers would recognize a gun if she had waved it in their face.

Unfortunately for her and fortunately for the two of them, something she didn't expect happened. The tree was cut all the way through and fell towards her. She could hear the snapping, but with her eyes closed, she couldn't see exactly where the tree was going to fall and the only clue was something hitting her in the head with enough force to knock her down and to the ground. This rendered her temporarily offline.

The two brothers walked over to her prone form and checked to see if she was alive. The two of them immediately started bickering among each other, both of them blaming the other who killed her. However the Reploid came back on and grabbed the branch she was pinned under silently. The snapping sound alerted the two brothers who had the sense to hightail it out of there. Leila's targeting system registered the two fleeing humans as enemies, with the objective to kill them both. However, her threat scan told her that they weren't much of a threat, thus they weren't a priority to try to kill yet.

The Maverick stood up and concentrated on her armor and weapons, shredding the clothes underneath. She had no use for clothing, they wouldn't assist her in her objective to destroy humanity. Leila also turned off her voice synthesizer, they didn't need to hear her speak. She started to make her way back to the farmhouse, an evil grin on her face. She wasn't going to make it quick, she wouldn't attack them from beyond their visual range. She wanted to take out what she considered were the biggest threats to her in front of their very eyes.

The Reploid walked across the field, the animals suddenly starting to move away from her as if they sensed her intentions. Her every step sounded through the silence of the field, her every movement caused the animals in the stable to start to get restless. Apple Bloom stood in her way and she scanned her, revealing the teenager to not be a threat, but she would be a useful messenger. "Leila, what ya doin armored and all again," she asked.

The Reploid turned on her vocal synthesizer for a brief moment, "Run child, tell your sister that death comes her way," she said in an angry and menacing tone.

The young teen gulped nervously, "Is everythin alright?" she asked.

Leila removed the Buster Shot from her back and fired a warning shot in the air, causing the young teenage girl to flee back towards the farmhouse. The Maverick holstered the weapon and turned her vocal synthesizer off once more. She continued her slow trek, giving Apple Bloom enough time to warn the others. She was a Reploid and now a Maverick at that, there was nothing these humans could to to stop her she figured.

She silently laughed to herself as she arrived at the farmhouse, everyone was on the defensive towards her. This was good, she gave them a smirk with sadistic glee. But a large human with pale skin and orange hair charged her, "Get away from mah sisters!" he yelled.

The Maverick turned her head and locked her body into place, letting the human's feeble tackle attempt to hit her with a thunk sound. She grabbed the man by the shirt and forced him off her, throwing him over her shoulder without even using her other arm. The human surprisingly landed on his feet and rushed her again, this time she lifted her arm so that he'd run straight into her fist. Thus caused Big Mac to stop and hold his nose and back up slightly as Shining Armor tried to tackle the Reploid from behind, triggering her proximity alarm and much to his horror, she grabbed him mid-tackle and slammed him on the ground before tossing him aside.

Principal Cadance tried to rush the Maverick with Vice-Principal Luna, both of them coming from opposite sides to try to overwhelm her proximity sensors. But Leila merely rushed towards Principal Cadance and grabbed her by the face, using her as a shield from the Vice-Principal's blow. She tossed the pink woman aside and grabbed the blue woman, throwing her at the farmhouse wall, causing her to impact with a thud and fall to the ground. Principal Celestia pulled a taser out of her bag and rushed Leila who didn't counterattack. Instead the Maverick opened her left arm and quickly slotted the Thunder Element Chip into her active chip slot and allowed Celestia to hit her. Fifty thousand volts shot through her body, but the now yellow armor took the shock as if it were absolutely nothing. Leila punched the Principal in the face, drawing blood as she did so and causing her to reel back.

Celestia retreated, not sure of what to do as a gun shot rang out. A police officer had arrived with a pistol to try to save everyone, but the bullet impacted the Reploid's armor and failed to penetrate. The Maverick turned to the woman who had shot her, it was the police officer she had met when she first arrived. Several more futile shots rang out, each and everyone impacting her armor rather than doing any damage. The gem on her forehead started to glow and she charged the officer, grabbing the gun and snapping it in half, before open hand punching the policewoman into her car, knocking her out.

Leila turned around to face her targets, the seven girls she had befriended before she became a Maverick. But they were in an unfamiliar state to her, their hair was longer and in a ponytail and they had pony ears. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had wings in addition to this. The scanners that the Reploid had told her that their power had increased with this change and she tried to rush Applejack, but her proximity alarm was triggered. She was unable to react when a massive bear grabbed her and lifted her off her feet, holding her tightly to its chest. A few quick calculations told her that the bear's face was behind her head and she looked down for a moment, leading the humans to believe she had started to feel bad for her actions, but suddenly her head snapped back, slamming into the bear's face.

This caused the bear to weaken its grip on her and she was able to get to her feet. The Maverick grabbed the bear with one hand and threw it one handed over her shoulder at the feet of Fluttershy, who gasped. "Hey now, yer our friend, Leila. Don't you remember us?" Applejack said to try to reach her.

The Reploid pulled her Buster Shot off her back and aimed at the pale yellow human, charging a shot. Pinkie Pie pulled out some sprinkles and threw them at the firearm, damaging the firing mechanism as they detonated near it. "Leila! Friends do not try to shoot friends!" she scolded.

The Maverick tried to fire, but the charge harmlessly dissipated into the air. She squeezed the trigger, hoping to get an uncharged shot out of the weapon. This caused nothing to happen and she threw the weapon at the pink waitress' head. Rainbow Dash rushed forward and caught the weapon in mid-air, stopping it from doing any damage. "Hey! We're your friends and you're trying to hurt us!" she yelled.

None of the girls could figure out what had happened with the exception of Sunset Shimmer, thanks to the talk she and Leila had weeks ago, she knew what was going on. "Guys, our friend isn't going to listen to us. She's gone to us, she's become a Maverick!" she called out.

Everyone's attention left the homicidal robot, giving her the opening she needed, she drew her beam saber and rushed towards Applejack with the intent to cleave her in two from top to bottom. However, the farmgirl turned around, expecting something like this, catching the arm that had the saber in it to prevent it from harming her. "Leila, Ah know yer in there somewhere, fight it!" she said to try to reach her friend.

The Reploid's eyes opened wide, giving everyone a false sense of hope that they were able to reach her, but the reality of the situation they were in was that she was just surprised this human had reacted so fast to her attack. The right hand let go of the beam saber, but a rainbow blur moved between the two of them, grabbing it out of the air, unbeknownst to Leila. The Maverick tried to impale Applejack, but her left hand gently hit her belly instead.

"Lookin for this, Leila! I won't let you hurt my friends!" Rainbow Dash taunted as she dangled the beam saber hilt in the open.

Said Maverick made a mental note to kill Rainbow Dash next. Preferably with her bare hands, but a charged shot from her buster would suffice. A damage readout suddenly entered her vision as the farmgirl crushed her right arm, damaging the components within. Angered, Leila changed her left hand into a buster, causing Twilight Sparkle to gasp, "Oh no!" she cried.

The scientist gripped the buster in a telekinetic grab, forcing it to point at the ground and fire off a harmless shot that only managed to kick up some dust and scorch the ground between the Reploid and the farmgirl. "Rarity! Throw your diamond constructs at it! I can't hold it forever!" she yelled.

"Darling, what if I hit Applejack?" the fashionista protested.

"You won't! I believe in you!" the scientist replied.

Rarity created six diamond small diamond constructs and launched them at the buster. All six of them hit their mark, damaging it to the point of being inoperable and unable to return to the hand configuration. However, Leila's right arm started to fill out, her auto-repair functions were brought online. This caused Sunset Shimmer to turn to Rainbow Dash, "Give that to me!" she ordered.

The athlete nodded and rushed towards Sunset, passing her the beam saber. The pale amber student looked towards Applejack, "Move out of the way!" she yelled.

The farmgirl hesitated for a moment thinking her friend was crazy, but the look in everyone else's eyes told her that her friend had a plan. She moved out of the way, allowing Sunset Shimmer to rush in with the beam saber. The Reploid tried to move, but the pale amber student activated the weapon and thrust the blade into her mid-section. Damage readouts appeared across the vision of the Maverick, warning signs started popping up and her eyes started to soften.

Sunset deactivated the beam saber and Leila fell to her knees as the weapon that had been stolen from her earlier dropped to the ground. A full diagnostic told the Reploid that both her Solar and Microfusion cores had been severely damaged. The former was completely inoperable and her solar energy stores were being lost at a rapid rate and the latter was leaking rapidly. Every human present looked at her as she fell on her back, a hole through her midsection leaking oil and hydraulic fluids. An image of a man appeared before her eyes and she weakly reached up, her vocal synthesizer turned back on. "F-Father..." was the only thing she said.

The memory unit in her head started to malfunction, images from her existence flashed before her very eyes. Her first activation, getting to meet her brothers, the meeting with Commander X and being assigned to the 17th Elite Unit, later being transferred into a command position of the 14th Special Unit. Several missions appeared before her at once, many of them she had lost comrades. Then the recent memories from the conflict ravaging her world flashed before her eyes. Then there was nothing more, but the reality of the situation in front of her. Leila turned her head to look towards Sunset Shimmer, who had fallen to her knees, "You kept your promise," she said, her voice weak.

The pale amber human looked down to hide the tears, "I didn't want to do this, but you told me to, so I did," she said, trying not to choke on her own words.

The six other ponied up humans walked towards their human friend, leaving Leila on the ground by herself. "Fluttershy, you remind me of him..." the Reploid said.

Fluttershy looked towards Leila and slowly, but timidly walked towards her. She knelt down next to the Reploid with a frown on her face, "Who?" she asked.

"Commander X... well, he's not the commander of my unit... I command the 14th, he commands the 17th. But I respect him so much that I never stopped calling him by the title of Commander. Commander Fluttershy, never give up your hope, never give up you love for animals and keep protecting the creatures that can't protect themselves," the dying Maverick Hunter told her.

Sunset Shimmer recovered enough to walk over to her dying friend, she sat down on her knees and lifted the Reploid's head off the ground and into her lap. "I'm sorry that it had to be like this Leila, I wish there was some way we could have saved you," she said, tears rolling down her face.

The light in the Maverick Hunter's eyes started to fade as her energy sources reached near-critically low levels. The diagnostics told her that she had less than ten minutes left. "Everyone... I don't have long. Please, come closer," she requested.

The others walked to her and her proximity sensors told her that they had surrounded her as the world faded away from her vision as non-critical systems were turned off to try to conserve energy. "Sunset Shimmer, you remind me of the stories that Commander X had told me about his best friend Zero. You're a true hero underneath and you fight to protect your friends despite your past," she told the person holding her.

The pale amber student smiled and fought back tears, but the Reploid placed a hand on her cheek to wipe them away.

"Twilight Sparkle, you are a brilliant scientist and you hold the key to making this world a better place. I'm sure you'll find a way to create the world that Commander X has been fighting his entire life to create. A world where machines like me and humans like you can live in peace and harmony. I believe in you," The Reploid said without turning her head.

The scientist started to cry, but placed her hand in Leila's free hand, holding it tightly, "I promise that I will dedicate my work to such a world in your memory. I'll try to repair you and bring you back online and if I can't, I promise I'll find a way to send a message to this Commander X that you speak so highly about," she said, causing a weak smile to form on the Maverick Hunter's face.

"Applejack, your honesty and hard work brings people closer together, you constantly are the one to try to make sense of situations that don't make sense to you and you're always thinking of your friends. You will be the glue that keeps your friends together when things test the limits of your friendships," Leila said to the farmgirl.

Applejack nodded and placed her stetson on her chest, "Ah am honored that ya think so, Leila," she said, tears in her eyes.

The Maverick Hunter nodded, "Rainbow Dash, your Loyalty and cockiness reminds me of Captain Axl. You talk a big game, but you want to live up to the legends that you've heard about. Don't be so concerned with that and just be yourself, do not be afraid to fail, but also never forget to be there for your friends when they need you," she stated.

The athlete looked around nervously, "Me, afraid to fail? Not a chance!" she tried to lie, getting an arched brow and a glare from Applejack, "Okay, you're right, I am afraid to fail. But that's because I want to be a better person for my friends," she said.

Leila nodded weakly, "Just... be yourself. Now, Pinkie Pie, you've always been able to spread joy and you helped make me one of the happiest Reploids to ever exist. I wish that I could've tasted the food you have served me and I apologize for the whole thing with the Buster a month ago. You're a good friend and a source of laughter and joy in any group. Never change," she said, her voice getting weaker.

Pinkie smiled, tears forming in her eyes as she started to sob wildly. "What about me, Darling?" Rarity asked.

"Your generosity in giving me the clothes was greatly appreciated, but where I'm going, I won't need them anymore. You can have them back if you'd like. But never lose that generous spirit, if there were more people like you in the world. Surely this world would be a far better place than it is right now. You will always be important to any friend group that you're in," the Reploid said.

There was a pause as everyone started crying, "Thank you for being the sister I never had... Twilight Sparkle. And to all of you, if you were in my world, you would've made excellent Maverick Hunters, your teamwork and ingenuity proved that you are capable of defending this world from any threats. My... vocal synthesizer is almost... offline. Good-bye... my friends," The Reploid said as her hands fell to the ground, her grip loosened on Twilight's hand.

To everyone else, she had already gone offline, but her systems had tried to redirect energy to critical systems to keep her alive. None of it worked. Everyone around her started openly weeping and she could hear it. Unable to see them, speak with them, or interact with them. There was nothing but darkness from her perspective. She wanted her friends to protect the world in her absence and not to mourn her loss, only to go out and continue to be the heroes that this world needed. She had seen so much death and destruction in her time being online. Her eyes whited out, the last thing that she saw was the countdown in the void, slowly counting to the moment she would go offline. It seemed to take an eternity to count down from thirty seconds to five. An eternity in which Leila heard her friends on the outside weep for her death.

As the counter hit five seconds, her hearing suddenly cut off, leaving her alone in the empty void. There wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel, there wasn't some angel to come and get her. She was a machine after all, she didn't really have a soul as it was understood by humans. The last of her systems started shutting down as the seconds counted down. Once the countdown hit zero, she was no more. In the physical world, she was nothing more than a motionless, lifeless husk laying on the ground, surrounded by her friends who were openly crying at her death while being comforted by their friends and family.

Though she was gone, she wasn't forgotten. Her body would be transferred to Twilight Sparkle's lab with the help of Big McIntosh and Shining Armor where she would be placed in a capsule for safe keeping, it would keep dust from entering the internal components, keeping the Reploid clean. Everyone was present for the sealing, but though the intention was to keep the body safe, in everyone's minds, the capsule was more of a coffin than a protective measure.

As everyone except for the scientist left the lab, Twilight Velvet walked in and gasped, in the two weeks since she had been told by the Reploid that she had viewed the gray woman as her mother, she started to see the Maverick Hunter as one of her own children. "I promise, Mom that I'll do my best to fix her, I'll do everything I can!" Twilight Sparkle called out.

The mother and daughter both hugged as they cried into each other, trying to comfort the other. To everyone else in the group of friends, they had lost a friend. But to the Twilight family, they had lost a family member. But Twilight Sparkle was determined, she would spend the rest of her life if she had to in order to try to bring her sister back.

Chapter 10: The Future

One hundred and three years had passed since the day of Leila's disappearance and Megaman X found himself entirely within Cyberspace, he could no longer hold his Cyber-Elf form and had left the world in the care of his best friend, Zero. It was here that he finally met an old friend of his that he hadn't seen in many decades, Axl stood there with the same cocky grin he always had. "Hey X, you think that Zero will be able to protect the world?" he asked.

X smiled, "Yeah, I'm sure he will," was the response.

The Second Generation Reploid Prototype thumbed towards a particular file, "By the way, I brought this over here. It says that it needs you to unlock it or something like that. I tried figuring out what it was, but it keeps rejecting me," he said with a frown.

X nodded and placed his hand on the file. An image of an elderly purple woman with graying blue hair appeared before him in a lab coat. "If you're receiving this message, then I have not been able to bring my sister, Leila back online. Commander X, or perhaps I should just call you X, I am Twilight Sparkle and I am the one who found your friend fifty-two years ago. While she found it surprising that someone so accomplished and intelligent was so young, we formed a fast friendship and she touched the lives of myself and my friends. I regret to inform you that our time with her was short lived, only a month and a half. Sunset knew what was going on when it happened and she was the one to stop Leila. I believe the term that was used was Maverick, but in her last moments she was surrounded by us and she had returned to herself. When we were younger, we all compiled our feelings into our own letters. I would like for you to hear them now," the woman said.

X nodded, feeling saddened that Leila had gone Maverick and had to be put down. He had hoped that she would resurface one day, but knowing that she had died as herself instead of as a Maverick eased the aching in his heart. He was at least relieved to finally know what had happened to her as the image shifted to show a younger version of the woman in question. She was in her twenties at the oldest.

"X, when Leila came into my life, I had never seen anything so advanced in my life. A machine that could think and act on its own. A machine that could learn and feel and grow, it was the dream of every scientist. But as I got to know her, I got to learn that she was more than just a machine, deep down within her, she was a person and the two of us grew close. We saw each other as sisters and my mom took her in as her own daughter. Since that day, we've never been the same and I promise you that even if I don't live to see it, our world will advance far enough to be able to repair your friend. She was a wonderful friend and an even better sister and I miss her," Twilight Sparkle said.

The image shifted to a cyan athlete with rainbow hair as Sage Harpuia, Fighting Fefnir, Fairy Leviathan, and Hidden Phantom joined them. "When I first met Leila, I thought she was going to be boring, Twilight had told me that she was a machine and I couldn't get over the idea that she'd just be another nerd invention. But, Leila was pretty awesome, she was happy to play sports and was almost as good as I was at them. Every morning at around seven AM, she'd wake up and go for a run around the city, she really enjoyed it and I enjoyed our running together. She was one of the coolest people I ever knew, not as cool as me of course, but close. Anyway, she was one of the best friends I ever had and I'm gonna miss her!" Rainbow Dash told them.

The image then shifted to a tan woman with blond hair, "Ah have ta admit that Ah feel some responsibility for the loss of yer friend and ours. If Ah hadn't had asked her ta go look out fer Flim and Flam, maybe she would still be here and we wouldn't have ta be doin this here memorial for ya ta see. Ah hope ya can find it in yer heart ta forgive me, X. Ah just... everyone tells me not ta feel guilty about it, that Flim and Flam were put away for the rest of their lives, but Ah can't help but ta think that if she were with us on that day, she'd have alerted us ta their trickery and we'd have had many more happy experiences together. She didn't know a thresher from a spade, but she was one of the most honest and loyal friends Ah could've ever asked fer and Ah wish I could go back and stop it all from happening. Axl, Ah don't know ya that well, but Ah hope ya can forgive me too," Applejack apologized.

There was a pause in the transformation of the image, almost as if a reaction was expected. "I don't know who you are, but I forgive you, it wasn't your fault, ma'am. Leila was a Maverick Hunter, she did what her heart told her was right," X said, knowing that the person in the recording couldn't hear him.

"Yeah, she was one of the finest Maverick Hunters I knew during the Elf Wars. She was known to keep a level head and carry out the mission, no matter the circumstances. If she turned Maverick, she would've wanted to have been taken out to protect the lives of others," Axl replied.

A few seconds later, the image morphed to a pink woman with a frown on her face, "Leila was a really nice Reploid who liked to spread cheer. She told me a lot about the world she came from and how you all have a terrible world because of someone that you haven't yet figured out. But by the time you get this, you might have already saved your world from him. If so, yay! But she wasn't a grump like so many characters I've seen in movies and games. She always enjoyed spreading joy and happiness. She wanted people to smile and to wear a smile herself. Whenever she spoke of you, X, she spoke incredibly highly of you and how you inspired her to become a better Reploid. I know that you probably missed her a whole lot, but she was one of the best friends I could ever have," Pinkie Pie said, finally smiling sadly at the end.

The image morphed again this time to a white woman with purple hair, "X, darling. When I first met Leila, she was in the need of some new clothing, she was wearing this absolutely unfashionable armor. But she had a great attention to fashion, she enjoyed wearing new clothing, telling me that she felt more like the woman her father wanted her to be, instead of the soldier that she had became. It was heartwarming to see her become a much more confident woman and admittedly, she did know how to look absolutely good in green, a color that I don't believe fits most people. But she was also a good friend, never taking advantage of anyone's generosity and always offering to pay me whenever I gave her a gift. I'm glad that I got to know her and I wanted you to know that if I could send some clothes for you to try, I would," Rarity announced.

The image changed to a pale yellow woman with pink hair. "Um. Leila always told me how you cared so much about people and Reploids, X and how you were always thinking of other living creatures as well. She also once told me that you have an ability that no other Reploid does, the ability to cry. I want to take care of all the animals like she did. Seeing so many different creatures that don't exist where she came from made her very happy. She was always excited to see the different animals in the shelter as they were creatures she wouldn't ever have been able to see if she came here. She was also very kind and very gentle and I'm glad she came into my life," Fluttershy quietly said.

The eighth image to appear was of a pale amber woman with red and yellow hair, "It's been a few years since that day happened and I haven't been able to let go of her Beam Saber, it's the only thing I have to remind me of her and what I did. Leila knew about my past and was the first to bring it up in a respectful way that told me that she had admiration for me. She trusted me to be the one to retire her if she ever became a Maverick and I fulfilled that promise. It wasn't easy, but I could see the fear in her eyes when she talked to me about that possibility. Like her, I wasn't originally from this world and we bonded over that, becoming good friends in the process, despite the promise mentioned earlier. I want you to know that all of us miss her and we hope to see her again one day," Sunset Shimmer reported.

The ninth image shift wasn't back to the purple woman, but rather to Leila, surprising everyone. The Four Guardians finally got to see the Reploid that they had heard stories of from X. "Commander X, Captain Axl, if you are receiving this message, then for some reason, I cannot ever return to our world. It might just be impossible without Cyber-Elves and I'm alive and well or I've turned Maverick and Sunset Shimmer has retired me or any number of possibilities. I don't know. The last month of my life has been the happiest I've ever been. Commander, I found the peace that you always talked about wanting. There's no fighting in this world and though there's minor conflicts between people, no one really gets hurt. I hope that by the time you get this message, your ideal world has come to fruition. Captain, I hope you were found safe and sound, I got worried when you went missing. But do not lament the fact that I can't be there, do not mourn me if I have been retired. Take solace in the fact that I've been happy for the time I've been here. The two of you will forever be my friends and I will always wish you the best. Your friend, Leila."

The image shifted back to the elderly scientist, "I have one more thing to show you before I go, X. I have to get back to work on keeping the world on the peaceful path that it's on," she said.

The image changed one last time to a picture taken in the parking lot of a theme park, it was all seven of the girls and Leila. All of them were happy and this put a smile on X's face.

"Master X, what are you going to do?" asked Harpuia.

The Android thought for a second, "Leila fell in the Elf Wars, she gets a posthumous two-rank promotion to GA-Rank. Just like all the other A-Rank hunters we lost in that war," he declared.

The Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia all knelt before X and Axl smiled, "I'm sure that's what she would have wanted," Axl stated.

X nodded and smiled knowing that Zero was out there protecting this world and in a different world, Leila had helped inspire someone to create a peaceful world.

Seventy years after Leila had been retired, an elderly Twilight Sparkle stood over a capsule containing a Reploid. This Reploid was a First Generation Reploid based off of Leila's schematics. With the press of a button she finally brought the machine to life, the capsule opened and the Reploid looked at her creator. She was a lighter shade of purple than Twilight was, and where there was a pink stripe in the hair of the human, the Reploid had a light blue stripe and blue eyes. "Mother?" the machine asked.

"Good morning, Midnight Sparkle. Get out of your capsule and look around the lab. This is your home and I hope you'll continue my work. I've spent the last ten years verifying your reliability," Twilight Sparkle said to her creation.

Midnight climbed out of the capsule and looked around, she noticed so many robotics components around, many notes that her creator had kept. But something caught her eye, a capsule on the wall containing a more advanced looking Reploid in green and black armor with a hole in its mid-section, a buster with six holes in it and a partially crushed right wrist, "Mom, who is that?" she asked.

A sad smile crossed the face of Twilight Sparkle, "She's an old friend. I hope that some day you'll get to meet her, but I fear she won't ever be repaired during my time," she said.

The Reploid nodded, knowing the mortality of humans, "I promise to carry on your work, Mother," she announced.

There were no words from the elderly scientist, just a knowing smile and a hand on her creation's shoulder. Thanks to Leila, robotics had advanced by over one hundred years and the world was at peace now. Overpopulation had been solved by putting colonies on the Moon and on Mars, food was plentiful and people all worked together. Much like the Reploid in the capsule dreamed of for her own world.

Author's Note

Minor Edit: S-Rank is a shortened version of SA or Special A rank and thus sits one rank above A-Rank. GA or Gold A is a two-rank promotion.

Chapter 1: The Hunter Wakes

A green Reploid with gray artificial muscles opened her violet eyes within a field near Canterlot City. She had no idea where she was, any maps that she could try to cross reference from her database were unable to determine where she was. This wasn't anywhere in the known world and her chronometer couldn't even determine when she was. Everything was unfamiliar and the last thing her memory unit could tell her that had happened was that a large force of Mavericks had ambushed their group. These Mavericks were endangering innocent Reploids as well as humans. She had joined X, Axl, and a few other hunters on the front lines to fight to protect the humans. During the climax of the battle, Axl had rushed into the thick of the battle and they hadn't seen him again, she realized that the other hunters aside from X were starting to lose the fight against their overwhelming enemy and were falling. Her superior noticed this and had ordered the survivors to use the Cyber-elves that they had been given in order to teleport back to Neo Arcadia for repairs. However, a Baby Elf, one of the copies of the corrupted Dark Elf had infected hers and the resulting flash of light knocked her out and this is where she ended up.

Two years had passed since the bloody conflict had started, two long years. Her A.I. age was around the mid-30s, but her frame was only twenty years old. Because of her high specs and her bravery, she quickly gained a reputation was a capable Maverick Hunter, being placed initially as a B-Rank hunter and quickly rising to A-Rank where she would remain. However, despite all of her specs and her experience, nothing had prepared her for this. In the distance, she could see colorful humans. Where she came from, they had normal skin tones ranging from dark to light based on the amount of melanin in their skin. She started to walk towards the city, realizing that she looked a bit strange with the armor around her frame. But she hoped that she would pass as human.

Walking down the street however made her realize one important thing. Though she passed as human, she was still armed with a standard issue beam saber with a white blade that was holstered on her right leg. Beneath her long red hair, she had a standard issue shot gun in case her modified buster was damaged or otherwise rendered inoperable. Her strange fashion sense didn't turn heads, but the fact that she was openly carrying weapons did. A grayish woman in police uniform walked towards her. The Reploid's eyes started scanning the woman for any sort of circuitry, but there wasn't any aside from a radio on her person. She was a human and as a Maverick Hunter, Leila had sworn to protect humans and never turn her weapons on one.

"Not many people wear costumes out in the open like that, Nightmare Night isn't for another few months," the police woman said.

This reaction was unexpected, the Maverick Hunter had expected to have to turn over her equipment to the local security forces here, but instead she was given an out. Leila tried to access her database to figure out what Nightmare Night was, but she came up blank. Her AI figured the best way to get out of this situation with minimal resistance would be to bluff her way out. "Ah yeah, sorry. This was something made for me by someone special to me and they liked seeing me wear it so I just do on a regular basis. They're... not really here anymore, so I more wear it in his memory," she stated.

This was a half-lie, her armor and frame were created by the man who had created her. He was like a father to her and had constantly worried about her as she went off on missions. Unfortunately during the opening volley of the Elf Wars, his lab was attacked and the Maverick Hunters were too late to save him. She had found her creator laying slumped against the wall, surrounded by the bodies of several Mavericks and a weapon near him. The security footage proved that he had fought and destroyed over a dozen Mavericks to try to save the lives of the other researchers before one of them were able to fire off the lucky shot that ended his life. From that moment forward, she had sworn never to remove her helmet on her own. Any damage that had been done to her cranial systems had to be done while she was switched off.

The officer nodded, seeming to buy the half-truth. "Well if it's that important to you, I won't tell you to remove it. Just keep in mind that you'll look a bit strange to others," she replied.

Leila didn't mind in the slightest, she continued to mind her business as she scanned for signs of technology. Though seemingly fruitless, her scans eventually pointed her to some sort of lab. She had expected to find a bunch of scientists at the lab, but instead what greeted her at the door was a light purple teenager with blue hair and violet eyes wearing glasses and a lab coat. "Uh, can I help you?" she asked.

This threw the Reploid's AI for a complete loop. She had expected adults, not someone that couldn't be more than sixteen years old. "Um, you're a student to a more experienced scientist, right?" the Maverick Hunter asked, confused at all of this.

The teenager looked up at the Reploid and frowned, "I'm the only scientist in this lab. I run this entire place, it's where I do most of my experiments. When I'm not helping the others of course," she said.

Leila was unable to process this information. Here was someone who was younger than her frame was and they not only owned their own lab, but ran it on their own. The amount of funding this girl would need was incomprehensible to the Maverick Hunter and the fact that her parents would even allow her to have a lab was starting to cause her artificial pain receptors to give her a minor headache. She closed her eyes and used her fingers to rub her forehead. "You're telling me, that you... a teenager who can't be more than sixteen years old, has the funding for an entire laboratory, on top of the funding to engage in whatever scientific experiment without *any* adult supervision!?" she exclaimed, her vocal synthesizer doing its job to convey that she was extremely annoyed at this fact.

The teenager shrugged at this outburst, she had heard this question many times before. Her unusually high intellect got her awarded grants to perform scientific experiments and some of what she did was freelance to begin with. "I know that you're confused, ma'am. But why are you trying to find a scientist?" she asked.

The Reploid lowered her voice and leaned in so no one could hear her but the purple scientist, "I don't know where I am or what year it is. I need to have a scan of my systems, both external and internal to make sure that I wasn't damaged during the incident."

Suddenly the teenager's eyes lit up, she started to realize what was going on and she opened the door to her lab, "Please come in!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Lelia had a bad feeling about this, but she decided to walk into the lab anyhow, she didn't know what to expect, but she found a whole slew of machines that were more advanced than what she was expecting from what seemed like a primitive culture. She remembered her creator showing her history documents that had pictures of the cars she had seen on her way here and the cell phones that people carried, but she didn't see anything like this show up until later in the 20XX era.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way. I assume that judging from what you said to me that you're some kind of robot!" the excited scientist said to her.

The Reploid nodded, but she felt Twilight try to remove her helmet. The Maverick Hunter whipped around and grabbed the young scientist's arms, glaring at her, "The helmet stays on," she warned.

Twilight pouted, "How will I be able to check your internal systems if you don't let me remove your helmet?"

Leila let go of the purple teenager's arms and the scientist removed her hands from the helmet. "It's... important to me, I wouldn't even allow X or Axl remove my helmet while I was still online. Even if I desperately needed repairs," she stated as she looked away, her expression turning sorrowful.

The Maverick Hunter didn't expect this teenager to understand, but Twilight nodded with a frown, "I understand how something can be important to you. Whoever gave you that helmet must have been someone very special to you," she observed.

"Yeah..."

The two of them stood silently, just waiting for the other to say anything, but nothing came. The scientist then thought about what the Reploid had said. She had mentioned two others by name. They weren't names that she recognized, but they were names nonetheless, "Who are X and Axl? Are they robots like you?" she asked.

Leila's eyes lit up at this, "X is the origin of all of us Reploids! He was the one who the late Doctor Cain based the designs of the original generation of us off of! There are currently three generations of Reploids. First Generation Reploids were created shortly after Megaman X was found and analyzed. Former Maverick Hunter Commander and Menace to where I come from, Sigma was an example of a First Generation Reploid. Second Generation Reploids were created beginning with the original Prototype, Axl. They're able to copy what we call a DNA Soul of a Reploid to become that Reploid temporarily. Both First Generation and Second Generation Reploids were upgraded to be more in line with my generation, the Third Generation of Reploids. Instead of being built with servos and motors, we're constructed with synthetic muscles. If I ever wanted to, I could discard this armor for a set of clothing and look indistinguishable from a normal human," she explained, excitedly after getting to talk about her heroes and their origins while completely missing the first point of Twilight's question.

Twilight however started to hook Leila up, she had a crazed grin on her face at the idea of being able to work with a machine that was so advanced that not even she was able to produce something like this. "What are X and Axl like?" she asked.

The Maverick Hunter started to access her recorded memories of X and Axl, "Commander X is a very kind soul. He doesn't like fighting, but he's always the first one out the gate to ensure that anyone that brings harm to humans or Reploids is brought to justice. Over the last eighteen years I've got to know him, he's never once ran from a fight or just sat there and cried about anything. I noticed that to him, anyone that fights alongside him is his friend, and I consider it a great honor. He's always been there for me and helped me figure out my purpose in the Maverick Hunters. If it weren't for him, I'm sure that the conflict that erupted in my world would've engulfed the entire planet, killing us all. As for Axl, he's a bit hotblooded, a tad arrogant and cocky. He's got a love for battle, which sometimes puts him at odds with X, but he's a good Reploid at heart. He ultimately wants to fight for justice and protect people and Reploids, just like our commander," she recounted.

The young scientist nodded as she started to run a diagnostic on the Reploid, "With heroes like them, I'm sure your world will be saved in no time," she stated.

Leila let out a sigh, she had hoped that would be true, but the casualties of the war were staggering and they were only in the second year. "An estimated forty percent of all Reploids have been destroyed. One-fourth of the human population has been lost so far. We've been fighting some mysterious enemy for a couple of years now, it's not Sigma anymore, it's something different and they're using Cyber-Elves just like us. We're currently calling the conflict 'the Elf Wars' because of this," she stated sorrowfully.

Twilight nodded solemnly. This was a lot to take in, "I believe you should go into sleep mode if you have one. It'll make running the diagnostic easier. Though with how advanced your systems are, it'll take a day or two for even my computers. I can't wait to see what kind of data that I find out!" she stated excitedly.

The Reploid nodded, closed her eyes and switched herself into sleep mode with a timer for forty-eight hours. If she was moved, she'd wake up before then like any other machine. But as she stood there silently in the lab, the only reason why Twilight Sparkle didn't once think her guest had died was the information that she was still receiving through her computer. It was going to be a long wait to see what secrets this robot held, but she could hardly wait and part of her wanted to show her friends.