Steel Rangers, part of the now ruined equestrian government, that is what paladin Hedge had told me. After I had reiterated what I had already said to, who I now knew was scribe Butterfly storm, she promptly arrested me and brought me down a hall to where the rest of her squad was.

"This stallion says he's an Equidriod sir, but those are Science fiction," Scribe Butterfly storm stated to her superior.

"I am unable to lie to you, I am an Equidriod," I stated directly after the Scribe.

The earth pony before me was wearing a thick metal armor, it was what I had to assume was the magic power armor mentioned during my first few days of existence. It was large, bulky and grey and had a missile launcher mounted on one side and a Gatling gun mounted on the other.

"If you really are a machine then you will no doubt be able to survive it if we dismantle your foreleg to examine it," The paladin countered. He had a very commanding tone to his voice, as though he had been doing this for years, witch I guessed he probably had been.

"Alright, go ahead, you will need to plug a Pipbuck or similar device into my chest to disengage the plate lock," I informed them. It would have been a lot more damaging to me had they tried to pry it off with a crowbar, and seeing as no factory in Equestria would have the exact parts to replace mine, pre war or not, it was only logical to let them continue un obstructed.

Seemingly to finally notice the small hole in my chest the scribe's mood changed from caution to excitement. "This is a whole new kind of pre-war technology we haven't even seen before!" She stated happily, so at the very least they didn't plan to shoot at me. How long that would last I had no idea.

"I see that, begin running tests on the 'Equidriod' until further notice," He ordered, and at that I was hauled off to the main lobby again. This time there where three ponies in more large power armor guarding the doors out and to the rest of the building.

After listing off everything I already knew about myself, we started running endurance tests, she seemed to think that, "a machine so complex," As she put it, would run off a power source that would require cooling should I do strenuous activity. As it turned out, I did not. I had been running in place for a solid hour and a half before she decided that clearly if I needed to cool off it would take to long for it to happen to matter.

Next she tried to test my combat capability, witch proved utterly useless. I stated that I did not have the overrides to be able to preform combat, and when she shot at me, only to be met with not retaliation, she accepted it. Having very little else to test she decided to test my ability to think for myself.

"If two ponies where tied to the tracks at junction A and one pony was tied to junction B, and a train was coming down the track witch junction would you choose to let the train go down?" Was her first question.

"I would let the train go down Junction B," I replied. As far as I was concerned there was no reason to ponder a question like that, it was only logical to prevent as many casualties as possible.

Sensing that in order to understand just how sapient I was she asked me a harder ethical dilemma. "A pony want's to have a tree cut down, it's on her property, but before she owned the property, the local orphanage had a deal with the owner to use the apple's to make apple pie's as the local orchard's apples where too expensive. Is she in the right to chop down the tree, or should she uphold the deal?" She asked.

Now this question felt different, there didn't seem to be a right answer. she couldn't deprive the foals of their treats, as that would be cruel, but if she owned the land, then she had every right to chop it down. So I did the next best thing I was capable of, reasoning.

"She should not chop the tree down, but sell the apple's at a price lower then the orchard's price to the orphanage as to still gain from the deal," To me, it seemed like the logical answer, to Butterfly however, it was incorrect.

"That wasn't an option, she's not willing to negotiate, you have to pick A or B," She corrected me.

"May I speak to her? I am sure we can come to an agre-"

"Hold on, hold on, she's not real, it's just a question, there is no orphanage, or orchard," She cut me off.

"Then the question is irrelevant and therefor it will not matter witch one I choose, so I choose let the orphans have apple pie," I said immediately. I chose this not by random but because it was what I would have done. This seemed to have satisfied her for now.

"So you are somewhat sapient, you just see everything as a logic puzzle," She said with new purpose to her voice. "I will talk to Hedge about getting you protection," and with that she left me with the two armored ponies. I wanted to follow, but I didn't know if I would be allowed to, so I took a step forward, and when nothing was shot at me, continued to where Butterfly had gone.

She had gone to the main office of the maintenance section of this building, my original destination. I also now noticed that this was the room I was in when first introduced to the Paladin. It was small, bigger then my closet but small, there was a desk on the far wall with a terminal on it, a safe to the right, and a work bench to the left.

"What do you mean 'destroy it'?!" Butterfly seemed to be having a heated discussion with Paladin Hedge.

"That is an order scribe! you will do as I have commanded or face court martial," His tone was brisk, and commanding, leaving no room for argument. "The 'Equidriod' has is of benefit to us, and cannot be replicated even if we still had the latest tech from the ministry,"

"Did you miss the part where he's sapient? Even if we can't replicate or use him, we should at least leave him be!" She said angrily. They where talking about if they should destroy me, and no sooner had I entered the room had I been noticed.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear, either you do it now, or I'll have you arrested," He commanded.

"I have combat capabilities, I cannot use them due to not having the override inside the terminal behind butterfly," I said in a vain attempt to diffuse the situation.

"So what? you expect me to hoof it over to you so you can kill us now that you know we need you gone?" As much as it was framed as a question it was not, it was his way of telling me the decision was final. That's when I saw Butterfly hoofing through the desk, she didn't seem to be against me so I decided I would buy her time.

I dashed out of the room, down the hall, through the lobby and to the stairwell. Hedge and two more rangers where now giving chase, but as they where a lot heavier then me they where slower, all be it not by much. I came thundering up to the floor I had awoken on, and in a random choice of action leaped through the large window I had looked out of before.

I hit the ground with a loud crunching sound that could only be my frame buckling under me. I started staggering forward and hid behind an empty food market, where I watched as some how, the rangers had stopped chasing me, they must have assumed me destroyed.

But that hope was quickly dashed as two scribes came out of the main entrance and started combing the immediate area for my remains. One was Butterfly, and the other was a lavender unicorn I had not yet seen. I stumbled to my hooves and tried to get away, but in doing so I knocked over some of the garbage cans near by.

"There!" Shouted the lavender unicorn, as they both closed in on my position. Butterfly got there first. She had her combat shotgun levitated at eye level with me.

"I'm sorry" She said as the lavender unicorn came running over, and before I could process what she had meant she swung her shotgun around and unloaded two rounds into the other scribes face. "Oh Celestia!" She cried out in terror, "No no no no no! I didn't think she was so close!"

Seeming to realize that if she wanted to live she would have to leave now she turned to face me. "I know how this looks but now we're both wanted by the rangers, so we need to leave!" She gestured with a hoof to the Ministry of Arcane Science building in the distance. "lets go there, it's become some what of a trade post I can buy the tools needed to fix you and then we can leave," As she gestured to the building, I noticed she now had a Pipbuck, no doubt from the head engineers office.

And with that we left the other scribe to bleed out, for fear that we would be killed on sight. It wasn't a far trot to tower, but in my current state I wasn't able to move very fast, so, by daybreak, we had gotten there and waited at the entrance.

"Hand over all your ammunition, and you can come in," Said the guard stallion. Butterfly promptly did so and I stated that I had none, and with that we where headed to get a room.

Once we had a room, Butterfly left to go buy enough tools to cut out the bent part of my frame, heat it up and bend it back into the right shape so she could weld it back on. But before that she came to me on my little would palate off to the side of a rather nice looking apartment room with red sheets and violet walls. "I have something for you, hopefully you won't decide to shoot me, but that's what building trust is for right?"

"What do you mean?" I queried.

"If I give you this, you trust me not to hurt you, and I'll trust you to make the choices from now on, deal?" She answered bluntly.

"Alright, what is it you are giving me?"

She then plugged her new Pipbuck into my chest, and uploaded the override. "Free will."

Footnote: Level 3!
Free thinker: you can now do things like, steal, kill, loot, and pick sides.
Butterfly has joined your party! As a scribe she can repair you, as well as use her basic medical training to heal other members of your party who are not so fortunate to be made of stainless steel.

Author's Note

sorry for the bad questions, I couldn't think of anything good.