“Your majesty,” Zoom greeted the queen as she stepped into the street.
“So, just so everything is completely clear,” Queen Haven began, “There is a giant robot, in my city, no pony knows how it arrived, and it demands to speak to the ‘person’ in charge?”
“Yeah pretty much,” Zoom replied, “It’s just around the corner.”
Just then, as if on cue, a barrage of bullets came whooshing around the corner, not in straightforward fashion, but instead literally bending around the corner like magic. They zoomed straight through the square, and off into the distance, hopefully landing somewhere out of harms way.
“Bending, bullets!?” Queen Haven exclaimed. “Come Zoom, I need to greet this strange visitor before any actual damage is done.” And the Queen took off flying.
The robot reached out with many strange green sensors and scanned Queen Haven all over.
“I say get off me you…!” The Queen demanded, struggling to comprehend what to call this weird anomaly.
“Greetings, Amanda Haven, your majesty,” The robot greeted. “Apologies for the discomfort I bestowed upon you, I mean no harm. My sensor identifies you as a non hostile foe.”
“I see…” Haven slowly remarked, “And who pray tell, are you? And in fact what are you? Clearly a robot but what type?”
“My build is also my name,” The Robot stated, “My name is Khepri, a gold class support robot built by Yan Di corporations. I am not from this universe, thus you have no knowledge of this company.”
“…Not from this universe?” The queen slowly quizzed.
“There was an incident,” Khepri stated, “We were in the middle of a rather nasty battle, but then all of a sudden, we were falling through dimensions.”
“Falling through- wait, we!?” Haven exclaimed, “There’s more of you!?”
“Yes,” Khepri bluntly stated, even rearing it’s cab back and forth like it was nodding to drive in the point. “Other robots, not like me at all, many different shapes and sizes, and different abilities. Climb inside my cab, and I will explain all.”
The queen contemplated for a second. A massive hulking robot had appeared out of nowhere, didn’t seem to be hostile, and was now requesting the queen climb inside of it to see how it worked. It half sounded like a trap, but at the same time the robot didn’t appear to be hostile…
“So help me if this is a trick,” The Queen muttered as she slowly flew up to Khepri’s cab.
*MYM*
When in the cab, Haven was greeted to a wonderfully quaint setup. Big bright lights adorned the cab, and there were lit arrows on the floor guiding towards the cockpit. Of course the Queen had no idea how any of the knobs and levers worked, though from first hoof contact, the robot seemed to be autonomous and didn’t require a pilot to function regularly. Perhaps the pilots helped enhance their skills when battling, which the queen assumed was what they did on account of Khepri’s bending bullet guns.
“There is nothing to fear my Queen,” Khepri spoke from outside the cab, “There is no foreseeable conflict within miles, so I most likely will not have to use my guns at this very moment.”
“Well that’s a relief,” Queen Haven commented, “Umm, but you said, …?”
“That is what we call my 4 lightweight guns I am equipped with.” Khepri replied.
“I see,” Haven said, “And pray tell exactly what you use those guns for?”
“An easily answered questioned,” Khepri began, “I use my guns during intense battles mostly alongside other robots. I am support class robot built by Yan-Di Corporations.
Whilst there is no other robot around as of now to demonstrate my active ability, said ability called ‘’ allows me to latch onto another robot telepathically, granting them extra speed, damage, and resistance from enemy fire for a matter of seconds.”
“Well, you’re certainly a fine tuned machine aren’t you?” Haven complemented.
“Many thankings your majesty,” Khepri replied, “However I’m afraid I cannot stay here long. I must find my allies and then find a way to return home to my own universe.”
“Ah yes I was meaning to ask your reasoning for being here,” Haven inquired.
“We had a teleporting accident in our own dimension,” Khepri explained, “Me and many others-“
Khepri suddenly cut off as beeping and boopings came from inside the cab.
“Umm, what’s all this?” Haven asked nervously.
“I am receiving a telepathic message from Crisis.” Khepri answered. “He is close, I must leave this place immediately.”
Without warning or any hesitation, Khepri began gliding out of Zephyr Heights, and along the long and winding path.
“Now hold on, what is the meaning of this!?” Haven blurted out, even though the meaning of it had been stated mere seconds ago.
The surrounding ponies, specifically the Pegasi, watched in horror as the Khepri floated away from the outer grounds, into the abyss below.
“What did you mean telepathic message!?” Haven demanded, desperately trying to regain control of Khepri. “And what Crisis!?”
“Crisis is the name of another robot,” Khepri explained. “We have managed to locate eachother. I am travelling there now.”
“We’ll surely I don’t need to go with you do I?” Haven replied, now seated in the chair at the control deck to stop herself from slipping all around the cab. Khepri didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he used his scanners again to reach into Haven’s memories.
“You have no current events going on at the moment,” Khepri then answered, “And you have been wanting some time away from the palace, so by all accounts, this should be a ‘real treat’ for you.”
“But does said treat involve any threat of dying?” Haven asked, hoping to princesses prior the answer would be no.
“Worry not about the possibility of dying your majesty,” Khepri responded, “In the line of fire, if I am destroyed, I will automatically eject any pilot inside, as will any other robot. We robots have a saying programmed into us; The pilots life is the priority.”
“We’ll okay then,” Haven replied. “I suppose we’re a little way off from the kingdom now. I’ll just have to send a royal decree to Thunder if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all your majesty, go ahead,” Khepri replied.
*MYM*
About 6 minutes of travel later, Khepri located exactly what he was looking for; It was Crisis, with Zipp and Hitch still tagging along in his cab, but in trouble, being surrounded by many Ticks, the smallest and weakest of the gray swarm, but no less capable of dealing serious damage. And that’s exactly what was being conflicted onto Crisis.
“Uhh buddy, I think we’re taking critical damage here!” Hitch commented.
“I told you we should’ve strayed away so we could snipe them from a distance!” Zipp snapped, clearly under pressure from having to operate the machinery.
“I am doing the best I can, but chance of succession is below 50%,” Crisis announced.
“Just great,” Zipp complained, “Still, I guess this is a kinda awesome way to go out, fighting a swarm of robotic-“
Zipp was cut off, as an odd green beam of light latched onto Crisis from afar. Khepri was here to save the day.
“Woah,” Hitch exclaimed, catching sight of the giant robot on a monitor camera, “Is this one of your friends, Crisis?”
“Yes indeed,” Crisis responded, “Hitch and Zipp, this is Khepri.”
“Greetings, foreign life forms,” Khepri announced, “I am here to assist you.”
“Okay well, we can have introductions later,” Zipp said frantically, “Right now, we kinda have an army of robotic ticks to take care of.
“As you wish, ma’am,” Khepri responded, quickly activating its Kramolas from a distance, and quickly helped dispatch the ticks. Whilst Kramola bullets aren’t as strong as Reaper bullets, they didn’t need reloading the same way, as they reloaded in chunks overtime, instead of having to wait several seconds to be fully refilled. And there were a lot more of them, which made short work of the mini swarm. Crisis helped finish them off with the help of Khepri’s strange green light beam.
“Well done new pilots,” Khepri complemented Hitch and Zipp, “I am connecting us now, so we may gather information about eachother.”
Khepri moved closer to Crisis, and the two locked hard drives. Both saw each others recent memory from surveillance cameras around the cabs, and screens showing each cabs insides showed on one of the other cabs’s screens.
“Mom!?” Was Zipp’s first reaction.
“Oh, umm.. surprise?” Haven said sheepishly. “Now before you berate me darling this robot instructed I look around its cab, I had no control when he suddenly decided to skip town and find you.”
“Wait, so does that mean all the other robots could have potential pony pilots?” Hitch asked.
“I beg your pardon?” Haven quizzed.
“There are currently 5 more robots stuck in this universe right now,” Crisis cut in, “It is our personal mission to reunite one another, and return home. If you wish, Amanda Haven, I shall explain on our way.”
“Your Mom’s name is Amanda?” Hitch asked.
“Very well,” Haven announced, ignoring Hitch’s question, “Let us be on our way.”
Crisis and Khepri did as the queen commanded, and set a course for Bridlewood, to find their next lost robot.
“Amanda,” Hitch said to himself, “Nice name.”
Zipp gave Hitch a look.
“What?” Hitch asked.
“Question,” Haven asked Khepri as the set a new course, “What was that odd beam of light before? You sped up a little, and I felt, well, rather energised.”
“That your majesty, is my active ability,” Khepri explained, “Just as Crisis harnesses the power of shieldbreaker and additional power for 3 seconds, I harness the ‘Bond’ ability. This ability allow me to lock onto an ally, granting them and myself increased speed and damage power, aswell as extra defence points and healing aswell. As a Yan-Di robot, I am classified as medium weight support class.”
“I see,” Haven remarked. “Well then, let us not wait around now. Tally ho giant robots!”
