I open my eyes in the darkened room, with a start as I feel the beads of sweat dripping on my forehead, and gaze at the near wall, close to my bed, and away from the door…

As I lay on my right side, I whisper, “I’m going back to Equestria… I just might have to face her again… “

“I’m getting closer and closer, as this ship cruises the solar system… “

I sigh, and wipe my face, before burying it into the soft pillow, while holding Mr. Bearington close to my body…

“At least I have you, plush toy… “ I say to nopony…

<*****>

I stand in the studio-like room, with the round 5 shiny parts on the stage-like beige floor…

I stare at the stage with a frown, “What is that?”

Tim turns his neck right towards me, smiles, and says, “That’s our transporter! It will teleport us down to the surface below! Now, you know the most about Equestria! Where do you believe we should teleport to?”

I widen my eyes when I think of the only safe place I can conceive… “I know where we need to teleport!”

<*****>

WARNING! HOSTILE INTRUDERS!

PREPARING WEAPONS AND SHIELDING SYSTEMS!

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL! TARGETING ENGAGED!

I see a reticle appear, as I feel my sides opening and weapons deploying!

I hear a feminine voice say from behind me, “Wait! That looks like me, except it’s sides are all open and long pointy thingies are sticking out!”

Wait! I look like her? That could only be…

“Misty?” I say to the voice behind me…

“Yeah, and you look like me!”

I hear a masculine voice say, “Wow! Looks like we found the android right off the bat!”

I hear a lower male voice say, “What are the odds?”

I stand motionless…

PROCESSING…

WEAPONS DISENGAGED AND SHIELDING LOWERED!

BACK TO NORMAL MODE…

There’s those words again! Normal mode! Maybe I’m just imagining these threats?

I turn around, to see a bluish green unicorn pony, with a two-toned curly green mane, mostly over the left side of her face, flanked by two humans I identify as Tim and Gary!

“You are Misty!”

She frowns, “And you’re Unicorn-01!”

“Uh, my designation has been changed to Starbeam… “

Her eyes widen, “What? Why?”

SMILE ENGAGED!

“She thought it made me more like a real pony!”

“Well, you’re real, right?”

SMILE LOWERED!

“What?”

She clears her throat, “Well, what I mean is, you exist, right?”

FROWN ENGAGED!

“Well, yeah!”

Gary stares down to Misty, “Well, she’s not actually self-aware, but what was engineered here was very close!”

I stare at the Caucasian human…

PROCESSING…

“I do not believe you understand?”

He turns to me, “What, Unicorn-01?”

“My designation is Starbeam… “

He flinches and shakes his head, “Oh, right! Uh, sorry Starbeam! Um, what do I not understand?”

I observe this human carefully… “I believe you need to meet the pegasus pony known as Zipp Storm!”

<*****>

“Ah! Wha?” I hear Zipp from her room, after I saw the robot me go into it…

“Zipp Storm! The real Misty has returned, along with the humans who took her! It is almost time for me to leave!”

“What? Starbeam, no! You don’t need to go anywhere!”

The robot is silent… “What?”

“I’m saying I like you Starbeam, and you’re welcome to stay! I’ll talk to Sunny and the others, but you don’t need to leave yet!”

I frown as the android is silent once more… “But I am not from here and I don’t belong!”

“Says who?”

The android is quiet…

I hear Zipp say, “I like you Starbeam, and it doesn’t matter that you’re metal… “

The robot is noiseless once more, before finally saying, “You’re about to hug me, aren’t you?”

I can hear Zipp chuckling…

I finally knock on the half-open door to make it sway right again, “Zipp! It’s me, Misty, and I brought the two humans with me!”

Suddenly, I see the brown door fly inward to open and a white blur comes out to embrace me tightly in it’s hooves!

“Oh, my pony! I was so worried Misty! Are you okay?”

Gary widens his eyes at the sight, “She’s fine!”

Tim on the other side says, “Yeah, we met Misty here, and she seems pretty cool!”

Zipp releases me, to glance left and right at both humans, and says, “Okay, what the hay are you creatures?”

Tim giggles, “Yeah, we’re called humans and we used to live on this world a billion years ago!”

Zipp frowns, “I’ve never seen anything like either one of you!”

Gary says, “Well, yeah! Our species died out some time ago, and we were exploring this time period!”

Tim says, “But now our leap point is missing, and we were hoping you ponies could help us?”

Zipp’s eyes enlarge, “Help?”

I stare at him, “Yes, we need your help to take them back to their own time!”

<*****>

Izzy frowns, “I don’t know? Is time travel magic even possible? I’ve never heard of anything like that!”

Zipp nods, “Yes, but there was one pony who lived long ago, who was able to solve the mystery! Her name was Starlight Glimmer!”

Sunny looks left towards Zipp, from her beanbag chair, “How would you know about that?”

Zipp smiles, “I read a lot of old historical documents! When you’re a princess, you kinda need to learn the history of Equestria!”

Pipp rolls her eyes, “It was SO boring, but of course, Zipp here just eats it up!”

Zipp smiles, “Yeah, my sister isn’t into academia, but… “

I gaze at Zipp carefully, “If Starlight Glimmer figured it out, that means that it is possible. However, we would require more information.”

Zipp’s face normalizes and she sighs, “Yeah, that’s the thing! I have no idea where we could learn something like that?”

Izzy suddenly chirps, “The Ancient Bridlewood Library!”

Zipp turns left towards her, “But that’s just a rundown old shack!”

Izzy giggles and flits her hoof in the air, “No, that’s the regular Bridlewood library, silly! The Ancient Bridlewood Library is further north of town, in the outskirts!”

Zipp adjusts herself, while leaning closer to the unicorn, “Wait, Bridlewood has outskirts?”

<*****>

I stare at the greenish-blue unicorn, who snuggles under the covers with her white stuffed bear, and say to her, “I do not need to be in here, if I’m making you uncomfortable! I can just wait outside, if you prefer?”

She raises her head towards me, “Wait, you don’t get bored or anything?”

“Time is irrelevant for one such as I… I can wait for as long as you need to sleep…

She smirks, and giggles slightly, “Well, truth be told, I didn’t really need to sleep, it’s just that it’s night here, now!”

SMILE ENGAGED!

“If you do not require rest, I would be happy to keep you company, if that’s what you’d want?”

She smiles back, “Actually Starbeam, I’d like that! I did have a question though!”

EYES WIDEN!

Oh, yeah! We were doing eyes now! That’s right!

Misty continues, “What happened at the castle? The humans told me that they teleported you into my room there… Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine at the castle!”

The unicorn visibly relaxes her shoulders, “Oh, good! I was worried about Queen Opaline!”

“Who is Queen Opaline?”

The unicorn fumbles with her words, “Uh, um, sh-she’s an alicorn! A powerful alicorn and I was supposed to help her gain all the magic in Equestria, and in exchange, she’d help me get my cutie mark! But uh, I-I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I don’t think I want to help her after all?”

I keep my gaze on the stuttering pony, “An alicorn pony has wings and a horn, correct?”

She starts, blinks, and looks at me closer, “Well, yeah!”

“Is Queen Opaline a shade of hot magenta, with a white mane and tail?”

Her eyes widen, “Y-yeah… “ and she leans closer, “How did you know?”

“I have eliminated Queen Opaline… “

Her huge eyes get even bigger, “What?”

“I killed Queen Opaline, because she became hostile… “

Her eyes are enormous, “Wait, so there’s nopony at the castle, right now?”

“Well, nopony living, no… Not to my knowledge… “

At this point, the unicorn did something unexpected… She began to giggle hysterically, “OH MY GOSH! I was getting ready, and worried about seeing her again and now, you’re telling me that… “ her eyes fixate on me, and her hoof points, “You’re telling me she’s dead!”

PROCESSING…

“You seem relieved?”

She begins a low chuckling while she stares at the bed, and shakes her head, “Wow! I uh… I just don’t know how I feel?”

“What do you mean?”

Her face raises towards me, and I see the confused look in her green eyes through my night vision, as her hair drifts towards the center of her face, and her muzzle frowns, “I mean, on one hoof, she definitely had it coming, but on the other, I mean, you just killed her?”

“This was before Sunny explained to me that pony’s lives have value and I shouldn’t just go around killing ponies… She appeared hostile, and I acted to preempt… “

Misty breathes in and out heavily through her mouth… “The monster is gone… The monster is dead and gone now, and only I remain… “*

SMILE ENGAGED!

“Well, there is a metal pony in your room with you?”

She stares up at me, “Um, Starbeam! Could you uh, do something for me, but uh, you’re not allowed to tell anypony about it, okay?”

SMILE LOWERED!

“You wish for me to keep a secret? Consider it hidden! I will not tell anypony else!”

She frowns, “Um, would you mind uh, holding me, p-please? Since um, you’re in here anyway!”

SMILE ENGAGED!

I begin trotting to the bed, to scoot in behind her…

LOVE AND AFFECTION ENGAGED!

Wait, what?

She snuggles down into my forehooves… “Thanks Starbeam… Why don’t we sleep like this from here on out?”

“Well, you’ll sleep… I’ll simply go offline… “

“Starbeam, I think we should call it sleeping, okay?”

PROCESSING…

“That is acceptable… “

“Goodnight, Starbeam!”

“Goodnight, Misty!”

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

*These are the words I said to myself, when I realized that I had outlived my enemies… “Only I remain… “