Mega Man X: Forgotten Legend

by Blue Bomber

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Other
Length: 25969

Realizing that he is the only being left on the abandoned Earth, X is faced with a problem; should he stay, or attempt to leave?

Mega Man X is the last being left on Earth. He's survived for countless years, fighting through 8 maverick wars, abandoned his body, and even merged with a human, all for peace between humans and reploids. As he looks at the empty world around him, he begins to realize that he's been gone for far longer than he had thought. Now he must decide:
Will he stay in this empty world, or leave it?

Story takes place FAR after the events of the events of the Megaman X/Zero/ZX series.
Story will be updated on an irregular basis. Mostly on weekends, sometimes not. Constructive criticism appreciated.

Published 2013-03-18 08:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-20 05:36:06 UTC

Sands of Time

RUNNING CORE SYSTEMS CHECK...
AUTO REPAIR SYSTEM...PASS
OPTIC CAMERA...PASS
MOTOR FUNCTIONS...PASS
MEMORY SYSTEM...PASS
GYROSCOPIC STABILIZATION (FULL AUTO BALANCER)...PASS
ESCAPE UNIT...PASS
SUB-TANKS...READY
SOLAR POWER UNIT...PASS
MICRO-FUSION REACTOR FUEL TANK...100% FULL
SOLAR BATTERY: 23%
ALL SYSTEMS: CODE GREEN
COMMENCE BOOT SEQUENCE

X opened his eyes to be greeted by a thick glass panel directly in front of him. Or was it on top on him? Only now did he realize that he was lying down in what appeared to be a capsule. He waited for a few seconds, expecting it to open. After a while, it was clear that it wasn't going to open on its own. He tapped on the glass, hoping someone would come unseal his capsule. No one came. After a while, X decided that he had to break the glass. He pulled his hand back, and struck the glass. It was no match for his reploid strength as the glass shattered upon impact. He stepped out of the capsule, only to realize that it was extremely dusty. And it was also turned off.

"That's strange...if it was off, then what woke me up?"

"And where is everyone?"

He examined the room around him. It seemed to be a small lab, a lab that looked oddly familiar, and also seemed to be extremely dusty. He walked over to a nearby desk and ran a finger over it. As expected, a large amount of dust was now on his finger. There was also a small stack of notes on the desk, and he picked it up.

"I'm surprised that there are still enough trees left to make paper."

X decided that there was no longer anything of value left to take from the abandoned lab, so he walked over to the door. He really had to charge his solar battery. He caught a glimpse of himself on a glass window as he passed. The first thing he noticed was that he looked different. Indeed he looked a bit like Zero after he got his body replaced during the Elf Wars. His body was black with a blue vest-like body piece and his legs were slimmed down, like the reploids built after the Elf Wars. His whole body had been redesigned to be more streamlined and aerodynamic.Which was useful, he decided, although he doubted that he would ever actually take to the skies and fly. He wasn't designed to fly. He examined himself intently for a while, then opened the door that led to the outside. What he saw outside shocked him.

It was empty, save for a patch of trees that had somehow survived through the constant warfare that had ravaged the planet. The ground was mostly dirt, but plant life had somehow begun to grow in this wasteland. X magnified his optic camera, and he could see a city far ahead to the east. It seemed to be abandoned, but war-torn didn't seem to be the right phrase to describe it at this point. It positively looked like a forgotten ruin.

"Just how long have I been missing?"

X slowly left the lab and walked towards the city. He could have dashed his way there, but he opted to walk so he could look over the notes he took from the lab.

April 4, 24XX
I think I've found the lost biometals, Models X, Z, F, H, P, and L. I don't want anyone else to find out about these biometals, or else the Mega Man war would start all over again. Instead, I think I will attempt to undo the biometals; that is, convert them back into their reploid forms. The heroes of the past, X and Zero would live again!

"Was this what happened? Is this why I'm still alive?

However, this must be done in secret. I can't imagine what would happen if word got out if I was trying to revive the lost heroes. I've taken my materials to the old Maverick Hunter HQ to carry out my plans in secret. I don't think all of the biometals will be successfully revived, but I am fairly certain that at least one will survive the process and fully recover. If X really does have limitless potential...

The notes stopped there. X checked his status. The sun was bright, and his battery was charging smoothly. He was getting pretty close to the city at this point. He wouldn't get tired as long as the sun was powering his solar unit.

Power 75% charged. Variable Weapons System online.

X had almost forgotten about that. He morphed his left arm into the X-buster. It was larger than his previous buster, this one changed his entire forearm into the buster, and stopped just below the elbow. He charged up his buster fully, and aiming at no particular point in the sky, he fired. A loud bang sounded out as a blue burst of energy flew towards the sky. X looked at it until he couldn't see it anymore. He then morphed his right arm into the X-buster and looked intently at it. He had always preferred to use the left arm as his buster arm so he could hold the Z-saber with his right hand, if he had it. Aiming again at no particular point in the sky, he let loose a barrage of uncharged shots.

Pewpewpewpewpew.

The buster weapons made by Doctor Light always made a rather distinctive sound when they fired uncharged shots. It sounded so anticlimatic, but they always got the job done, so X didn't mind for the most part. He kept walking towards the city as he opened his weapons list in the Variable Weapons System. He was a bit surprised to find that it was not empty, although most of the data inside was gibberish. He selected what he thought was Storm Tornado and tried to use it, but his buster made strange clicking sounds and refused to fire. His armor also turned into an ugly shade of brown instead of the usual shade of purple and lavender. He quickly unequipped the special weapon, turning back into his usual blue color. He noticed three options that weren't there before; one was labeled "BioM" and the other was simply labeled "Elf". The third one was labeled "EXIT".

X chose "Elf" and his vision faded out for a moment, then faded back in. He looked around him, and he seemed to be a bit taller than before. He looked down on the ground, only to find his body lying on the ground. X quickly looked at his hand, and saw that it was a bit transparent. X realized that he didn't get taller, but was floating a few inches from the ground! He immediately concluded that he could freely switch between his physical form and his Cyber Elf form at will. Feeling slightly shaken, X touched a hand to the chest of his body, and he was immediately pulled back inside his body. He got up and brushed the dust on his back, and looked at the other weapon. "BioM". He chose it, and his body instantly began to...shrink? He was floating as the tiny Model X, small enough to fit in the hand of an average human. Since there was no point staying in this form, he quickly switched back into his normal form.

As he continued walking forward, he noted that all his special weapons were on the list, but they were all unusable and made his buster feel like it was going to fall off. The weapon names were all written in gibberish, so he really had no idea what weapon he was selecting. Then he saw the EXIT button and realized how stupid he was for not selecting it. It was his escape unit, which allowed him to teleport to a preprogrammed location provided that his current location was cleared of Mavericks. A quick query showed that X's escape unit was still tied to Maverick Hunter HQ. X remembered that the notes had mentioned the other biometals in the old Hunter HQ. He quickly selected the EXIT button and X was carried away in a bright beam of light.

Back at the Hunter HQ...
X beamed into the center control room and looked around. Strangely, the building seemed to have been well maintained, despite the Hunters being disbanded after Zero had stopped Dr.Weil and the maverick outbreaks. There were papers thrown everywhere, and he randomly picked a torn piece of newspaper up.

March 21 25XX
DIMENSIONS COLLIDE
It has been found by scientists that the Earth is on a crash course with a strange wormhole that has... might destroy the Earth, and all it's inhabitants. "The space-time continuum is already being distorted. Reality as we know it might not last for long. If this continues, we may...

X crumpled the paper and tossed it aside. He now understood what had happened. There was nothing to fight for now, and nothing left. X, the robot with limitless potential, was the only one left.

The lab.

X ran to the labs of Hunter HQ. This was surely where the other biometals were, if they were to be revived. There were 4 capsules in the middle of the lab. It was clear that the things inside had been moved around. X ran towards the nearest capsule. He looked inside the capsules. They were empty. X looked at a nearby worktable. To his horror, he found the mutilated remains of Model H, P, L, and F sitting on the desk with papers scattered on them. Hands trembling, he took one of the papers and read through it.

January 3 25XX
The conversion of H, P, F, and L were unsuccessful. They had been lost for too long, and the casing of the biometals were much too damaged. It was already impossible to extract any sort of data out of them. Model Z seems to have fared a little better, but only a little. It is nowhere near enough to reconstruct Zero from the broken biometal, although I have managed to extract a piece of weapon data from it. The corresponding data files label it as the "Z-Saber". Unfortunately, that was the only thing I was able to reconstruct. Model X, on the other hand, seems to have been weathering the elements outdoors exceptionally well for whatever reason. With a bit of perseverance, I should be able to reconstruct fully all of X's systems. It is truly a miracle that X's biometal had survived at least 100 years out in the elements with no protection whatsoever. Perhaps this is part of his unlimited evolutionary potential?

A single tear rolled down X's face as he read through these notes. He was the only one surviving after all these years. If there was anything good, it was that he no longer had to fight. He made his way slowly to a fifth capsule tucked away in the corner of the room. He could see something small inside, though it wasn't very clear what it was. X reached for the power button on the capsule, then remembered that there was no power. He curled his hand into a fist, and slammed it onto the top of the capsule. X brushed the glass aside and took out the small object inside the capsule. It was the hilt of the Z-Saber. He flicked it on, and the familiar green triangular blade instantly shot out. In a rare moment of anger, X waved the Z-Saber and a green shockwave flew forward, slicing through the capsules and through the wall, leaving a gaping hole the the building. He looked outside, and at that moment, he realized that there was truly nothing left.

X turned around to leave when a capsule caught his eye. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was a teleporter. He tapped on it; to his surprise, it began to power on, despite it not having any obvious power source. A message flashed on its small screen. X stepped closer and began to read.

I AM WELL AWARE OF THE PENDING COLLISION OF THE WORMHOLE WITH EARTH, AND THAT LIFE AS WE KNOW IT WILL BE OVER SOON. HOWEVER IN MY FINAL ATTEMPT TO SALVAGE WHAT IS LEFT ON THIS WORLD, I BUILT THIS TELEPORTER THAT WILL SAFELY BRING ANY REPLOID THROUGH THIS WORMHOLE. UNFORTUNATELY I CANNOT SAVE ANY HUMAN LIVES WITH THE TELEPORTER; IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT TELEPORTING IS DESTRUCTIVE ON THE HUMAN BODY AND IT IS UNLIKELY THAT A HUMAN CAN SURVIVE HAVING ITS MOLECULES REARRANGED. THIS WILL MOST LIKELY BE A ONE WAY TRIP. IT IS NOT KNOWN WHAT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS WORMHOLE, SO I AM AFRAID THAT I CAN ONLY HOPE FOR THE BEST.

X stared dumbly at the message. He could choose to go to a new world, one where X could make a new life for himself, or he could remain in this world, one where he has lost everything, one where he has nothing left, one that was lost to the sands of time. Powering up the teleporter seemed to damage it and he knew that it wouldn't last long like this. X looked at the Z-Saber he was holding. In one fluid motion X retracted the blade and sheathed the hilt onto his back. He looked back one last time, and stepped in. The capsule enclosed around him. He closed his eyes, and the world faded.

As the teleporter began to rupture after teleporting X, a ghostly hologram of an old man with a lab coat looked on. It was flickering and fading fast.

"I'm sorry, X."

The Everfree is Overrated

Applejack looked across the fields into the Everfree Forest. "Something doesn't seem right about that forest..."

A sound of a Timberwolf howling rang out from the forest.

Rainbow Dash napped peacefully on her cloud, when the sound of the Timberwolf startled her awake.

"What the hay?"

A cloud from the Everfree then promptly flew towards Rainbow Dash at breakneck speeds. It slammed into her with the force of a...marshmallow, and it knocked her clean off her cloud, and she fell flat on her face.

It was noon, and Princess Celestia was filling out paperwork, as usual. "I wish something would happen." Suddenly, she felt a powerful surge of energy from the Everfree Forest. Considering how far Canterlot was from the Everfree, this was significant. Luna yawned as she walked over to Celestia. The day was not her domain, and the shock of the energy had woken her from her rest.

"I take it that you also felt the force?"
"Yes, my dearest sister."

A scroll suddenly appeared in front of Celestia. She immediately knew what to expect.

Dear Princess Celestia,
I felt a powerful force flowing out of the Everfree forest. It doesn't seem to be magic, although I would say it feels similar. There seems to have been teleportation involved. The force was strong enough to knock Rainbow Dash off her cloud! That will be all for now. I have to clean the library after I tend to Rainbow's nose.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

"It would seem that we have a visitor to Equestria, my sister." said Luna.

"Do you think you could talk to it through their dreams?" Celestia asked.

"I suppose I could try."

X landed inside a dark forest. He felt very tired. The teleporter had not said that it drained the energy of any reploid that used it to power itself! X noticed that he seemed to be charging a lot faster here for some reason. The sunlight felt... magical. He looked around; there was so much organic life! But was there sentient life? X jumped on a tree and began to kick his way up to the top. He looked from the top of the forest, magnifying his vision to scan for anything of interest. He saw a town to the north, and there seemed to be some objects flying around it. This was exactly what he was hoping to find. This is my chance to start a new life! X noticed that the sun was beginning to go down, and that meant his battery would stop charging. He suddenly realized that dangerous beasts could hunt at night, and although he doubted that an organic lifeform world stand a chance against a reploid, he decided to take no risks. With that, X jumped to a thick branch that was a good distance from the ground, lay down on it, and slipped into sleep mode.

Luna had raised the moon up and pushed the sun down at this hour.

"My beautiful night." she whispered.

Celestia stood next to Luna.

"The stars look fine tonight, Luna." said Celestia.

"Of course, sister. Maybe our visitor likes stargazing." said Luna.

"Well I'll be off to bed now. Wake me up if you need me, and see if you can talk to it through its dreams." said Celestia.

Luna simply nodded.

Luna sat in her chambers, focusing the magic needed for her dreamwalking spell. A trace of blue light left her body as her consciousness rose into the air. She saw thousands of small spheres of light. They represented the dreams that a pony had, and she could enter any one she wished. Luna moved quickly to Ponyville. Normally she might drop by one of the element bearer's dreams to say hello, but there was no time for that today. There was a single blue orb of light coming from the Everfree. She flew over to it and looked at the creature that was dreaming. It apparently had hands, wore a blue vest, blue shoes, and a blue helmet with a red gem in front of it. It was very blue, much like herself, and she could tell it had sad eyes, even as it was sleeping. She felt like she could relate to this blue creature. She reached out and touched the creature's dream orb.

Author's Note

X has decided to leap into this new world! And apparently he hasn't kept his entrance very quiet either, seeing how he probably startled half of Ponyville. This fic will most likely be updated on weekends, since I have to juggle school, my social life, and sleep. Until next time!

Encryption Breached

Luna felt her consciousness being pulled into the dream of the blue creature. But something felt a bit off; normally she would immediately land inside the ponies' dream and could take action from there. But not this time. She was flowing down a deep blue tunnel along with other strange particles that seemed to flow everywhere in this world. She looked to her side; it was a massive network of what seemed to be tunnels and walls made of 1s and 0s. As Luna fell, she was shocked to see that her left wing had begun to disintegrate into small particles. She was consumed in fear as her whole body began to fall apart.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE
Luna beamed into an area that lay directly outside of X's main systems. She looked around her; it was a deep blue room that seemed to stretch on endlessly in all directions, except one. Looking forward, she saw a massive red wall, that seemed to span endlessly both vertically and horizontally. It looked impossible to fly over or go around. Luna walked towards the wall; it seemed to get closer to her much faster than she was walking. Now that she was directly in front of it, it seemed to loom over her. Not sure what she should do, Luna raised a hoof and knocked on the wall.

User:
Password:
Current encryption: low.

"Huh?"

A large virtual QWERTY keyboard suddenly popped out in front of Luna, complete with keypad and a virtual mouse. Luna wasn't sure what to make of this, seeing how she had never used a keyboard before. She looked back at the login prompt; a cursor was blinking next to the "User:" box. Not knowing what to put, she typed in her name.

L-U-N-A. Luna.

And the password box. Luna had absolutely no idea what to enter for the password. She typed in the first thing that came to her mind and typed it in.

Moonrock?

A loud sound suddenly rang out, and the room flashed orange.

1 of 5 password attempts.

Luna blinked. She hadn't known that there were limited tries to get into this creature's head. Perhaps it's a complex anti-mind control spell.

Luna then promptly entered more passwords related the moon, rocks, or the color blue. Needless to say, they were incorrect.

5 of 5 attempts.
Safety protocol activated. Disconnecting user...

"Wait what?!"

After a brief loading period, Luna was unceremoniously kicked from X's system all the way back to her physical body in Canterlot. Her consciousness forcefully slammed into her body and her physical self awoke with a start, and fell off the bed that it was occupying. Celestia ran over to her chambers and opened the door.

"Sister! Are you alright? I heard a noise coming from your bedroom!"

Luna was sprawled out in an awkward position on the ground. An awkward silence ensued.

"I take it that it did not go well with the visitor, Luna?"
...

"Shut it, Celly."

X awoke with a start, and fell off the tree he was occupying. His auto balancer quickly shifted his position so he landed feet first onto the ground of the Everfree Forest. He quickly pulled up his status window on his anti-hack systems.

What the hell! No one should be trying to hack into my systems in this world!

He scanned carefully through his network logs, and saw that an unknown object had somehow downloaded itself into his system and was placed outside the firewall surrounding all critical programs that X needed to run. It had tried to log in, and was booted after 5 failed password attempts. He looked at the login information that it had attempted to use.

Luna. Moonrocks, eclipse, moon, blue, stars.

The passwords that this "Luna" used were not very sophisticated. Better safe than sorry, X thought, as he ramped up his encryption systems to maximum and changed his password to a 256- character one.

X checked his system clock. It was 6:30 in the morning. The sun wasn't completely out yet, but his solar battery seemed to be charging at a relatively fast rate. There's something about this sun... I'll have to look more into it later. But for now I should be heading for that town up ahead.

X walked slowly towards the town that lay beyond the forest. It was still cold, and X loved it. He loved the feeling of being able to turn on all his sensors, being able to feel the sun, the wind, the water, and anything else that nature could throw at him. Back on Earth, he was forced to turn off all his sensory units. It would only hinder him in his fights if he let the heat of an artificial volcano get to him, or let the cold of a man-made freezing summit freeze his systems. But here, he could feel the elements of nature as they were intended to be felt, and all the small details, like Doctor Light had intended.

What he did not notice was the large amounts of creatures that lived in the Everfree, and X would have absolutely no idea what those creatures were capable of.

Beyond the Everfree

The Everfree was a lot darker now that X was below the canopy layer of the trees. X did a quick scan of the surrounding area, and after confirming that there were no immediate threats, X marched forward towards the town beyond the forest. X felt a strange feeling that something was watching, and he swore that a branch from a random tree would swipe at him, although he was never hit directly. The more X walked, the more uneasy he would feel. After about 10 minutes of feeling watched by the trees, X pulled out the Z-Saber and thrust it into a nearby tree. It wilted slightly as the blade tore through its heartwood, and X immediately lost that sense of being watched. Smiling, he continued on his walk towards the forest.

His trek through the forest was relatively uneventful, until he came across a patch of beautiful blue flowers. They were unlike any other plant he had ever seen. Curious, X reached out and picked one.

*BZZZZT*

"What the hell!"

X was laying on the ground. He pulled himself up and noticed something peculiar. His systems were functioning as intended, although the font appeared to be 8-bit. He looked around; his vision seemed to be normal, and the only thing around seemed to be the strange blue flowers. X looked at his hands, then at his body. They seemed to be... less detailed.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Fluttershy was feeding her birds when a loud scream came from the forest.

"Eeep!"

The timid pegasus mare quickly hid behind her mane, and the birds that were around Fluttershy quickly scattered.

Oh no...what if it's an animal that needs help?

With that, Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew into the Everfree.

GET EQUIPPED WITH
REDUCED GRAPHICS
X stood there, and stared dumbly at the weapon get notification. Perhaps changing into a form of lower graphics counted as a great achievement. After all, you don't see reploids walking around and transforming into some video game character from 500 years in the past. X selected "8-bit" from his Variable Weapon System and turned it off, and he morphed back into his original form. It wasn't like him to scream, but seeing himself in reduced graphics mode had really put a strain on his emotional processors.

Breathing a sigh of relief, X turned around to keep on walking when a strange animal appeared. It looked like a chicken, but it had the wings of a bat and the body of a snake. It's red eyes were staring directly into X's optical sensors. X stared back; he had never seen an animal like this before. It had a very piercing gaze. Was it some sort of hybrid? Or maybe it was some sort of gene splicing experiment gone wrong. X continued to examine this strange animal. This chicken thing is really focused on my eyes for some reason.

The cockatrice was beginning to sweat. It was staring as hard as it could into the robot's eyes. "Why wasn't it working?!" it thought.

After a minute or so of staring, X reached out to pick up the cockatrice. The cockatrice opened its beak to reveal a set of sharp teeth. This didn't deter X at all, and he lifted the cockatrice up to get a closer look. The chance to study a new species up close didn't happen every day, you know. The cockatrice bit down on X's hand, and realized that it was as hard as a rock.

"Sorry buddy, but you'll need more than that to break my titanium-X body."

Suddenly a wolf crashed into X, knocking him backwards and made him drop the cockatrice into the patch of blue flowers. When the cockatrice got back up, it was just a chicken. The confused chicken quickly ran off. X looked carefully at the wolf. It was made of wood, and it had two bright yellow spots where its eyes would be. It howled, and X instantly assumed that it was calling the rest of its pack, like the wolves on Earth did. He decided that he wouldn't underestimate the creatures of this world, and X armed his left buster and began to charge.

10 minutes later...
X had a pack of timberwolves all over his body, biting, gnawing, and scratching at his body. X had a exasperated look on his face; he'd overestimated these creatures so much it wasn't even funny. They might be dangerous to an organic animal, but to X, they were literally biting on a rock. X's auto-repair system was more than able to handle the various scratches that the wolves' teeth and claws were leaving on his outer skin. X dragged himself along the dirt path leading towards the outside of the forest. The wolves were clinging to their prey tightly despite said prey being made of titanium-X and therefore inedible. X sighed as the wolves slobbered over him. Then X noticed a small yellow shape move behind a nearby tree. X stopped, and the timberwolves clinging to him fell off.

"Hello?"

No response.

X silently moved towards the tree as the timberwolves silently looked on. He slowly made his way around the back of the tree. What he saw surprised him. It was a small yellow pony with a pink mane and tail, with three pink butterflies on its flank. What surprised him the most was the fact that it seemed to have wings.

"Please don't hurt me..." Fluttershy attempted to hide behind her mane.

X blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected the pony to speak. It had a soft, feminine voice, and it spoke so quietly that X might have missed it had it not been for his advanced hearing systems.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to convince these wolves to leave me alone." X spoke with a soft voice, and his eyes radiated kindness.

"Wolves?" Fluttershy's demeanor immediately changed as she flew over to the pack of timberwolves. The timberwolves seemed to be docile for some reason. Fluttershy had never seen a tamed timberwolf before, much less an entire pack of timberwolves.

"Dear Celestia! How did you do it?"
"Huh?" X was distracted by the thoughts of trying to comprehend talking ponies.
"Taming the timberwolves of course!"

So that's what the wolves were called. X thought carefully. Had he done anything to tame those timberwolves? Of course.

During the fight with the wild timberwolves...

The timberwolves had knocked X back down into the patch of the strange blue flowers. It didn't seem to affect X anymore, and X quickly got up and primed his X-buster. But he hesitated. He couldn't bring himself to shoot a living creature. But then X saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw the cockatrice-turned-chicken slowly attempt to sneak away from the battlefield. X dashed over to the chicken and hurled it at the pack of timberwolves.

"I...um...fed the wolves. Yeah! I fed the wolves, and they've been following me ever since." Something told X that it probably wasn't a good idea to mention the chicken throwing part.

"Oh! Maybe I should try that if another timberwolf shows up sometime."

"No! Um...if you feed them too often, then they'll...um...become dependent on ponies for food! Yeah! They'll become dependent on ponies feeding them!" X looked quite proud of himself. After all, that was the basic rule that was posted in zoos around the world when they still existed. Never feed a wild animal.

"Hmm...I suppose you're right. You seem to be very knowledgeable about animals. What's your name?"

X closed his eyes and gave a silent sigh. Of course he was knowledgeable about animals. Most of the mavericks he fought were based on animals one way or another.
"You can call me X."

"X? That's a strange name. You can call me Fluttershy! If..you don't mind."

"...Nice to meet you, Fluttershy."

X looked at the sky. The sun had begun to go down, and X didn't want to spend another cold night sleeping on top of a tree.
"Perhaps we should get out of the forest?"

Fluttershy stared blankly for a secondly before responding.
"Huh? Oh, yes, we should probably get out of here. Dangerous creatures roam outside at night in the Everfree. You can stay at my cottage. If you don't mind."

This pony had a cottage. Perhaps these ponies are more advanced than I thought.

"I'd be glad to stay at your cottage, Fluttershy."

Author's Note

When angry timberwolves attack:
1. Turn cockatrice into chicken with poison joke.
2. Feed timberwolves with chicken.
3. ???
4. Profit!
As for the poison joke affecting X, I thought that turning him 8-bit would be pretty funny, except X can tolerate magical effects much more effectively than most other organic life. I suppose this counts as X's first upgrade, the Reduced Graphics upgrade! Although I doubt that having the ability to switch to an 8-bit body would help X very much combat wise, I'll still give 8-bit X some more appearances in the future.

Enter the Ponyville Night

X and Fluttershy quickly made their way to the edge of the Everfree, where they bid the timberwolves goodbye. Fluttershy's cottage wasn't very far, and the duo arrived at their destination quickly. It was a small cottage, with plants all around the surrounding area, with what seemed to be animal pens and a shed in the back. Fluttershy pushed the front door open and stepped inside, with X doing the same.

"Welcome to my cottage, X. I hope you'll find it comfortable. "

X looked around. There was a sofa and a few chairs around the living room, along with a small table in the corner and a fireplace in the front. To the side was a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It had a homely feeling to it, and X liked it.

"I'm sure I will. I can't think of the last time I've been inside a wooden building. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever been inside one."

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Oh, you poor thing. Where did you come from?"

X smiled. "It's a long story. I'll tell you everything tomorrow."

"Oh, alright then. Would you like some tea?"

Not being one to turn down a friendly offer, X accepted. It wasn't like X couldn't eat or drink. His systems were perfectly capable of processing food into low grade fuel for his systems, and X could taste just as well as any human. It was that there was simply no point for X to eat during the wars on Earth. The humans needed the food more than X, and burning food to power a robot was horribly inefficient. But now X could finally settle down and enjoy himself.

What do ponies eat?

At that moment, Fluttershy came from the kitchen, carrying a pot of tea in her mouth.

"I'll get that for you."

X walked over to help Fluttershy get her pot of tea over to the table. As he tried to reach his hand out to get the pot, it accidentally rubbed on Fluttershy's cutie mark.

"Eeep!" Fluttershy's face went beet red as she hid behind her long mane. She almost dropped her teapot, but fortunately for X, his mechanical reflexes did not fail him as he caught the teapot without spilling a drop.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" cried X, as he realized what he did.

To his surprise, Fluttershy giggled a little. "I know you didn't mean to do that."

X smiled as he placed the teapot on the table, and helped Fluttershy get out the teacups. X sat in front of the table, with Fluttershy sitting opposite of him. As she poured the tea, X was deep in thought.

What was that strange feeling when I touched that...symbol? And why did it feel so familiar?

"Fluttershy, can I ask you what those butterflies on your body are?"

"Oh, you mean this?" She waved a hoof at her cutie mark. "Those are called cutie marks. It symbolizes a pony's special talent."

X's eyes widened as he put two and two together and realized why his systems reacted the way it did.

"So can you tell me more about them?"

Fluttershy thought for a second before she replied. "Well, ponies are born without a cutie mark at first. When they get older, they'll find their talent, and that's when it appears. For example, mine symbolizes my talent of caring for animals."

"I see." X sipped his tea. It was good tea.

"How's the tea? Do you like it?" Fluttershy asked.

"It's very good tea, Fluttershy." said X, as he took another sip.

"That's nice to hear. I hope you'll enjoy yourself here. Feel free to use anything here."

X was slightly taken aback by this act of kindness, but he did not object. "Thank you very much, Fluttershy."

"You can just call me Shy, if you want. I'm sure we'll be great friends!" Fluttershy smiled as she said that last sentence slightly louder than her other sentences.

"As long as you don't look in my shed, that is." X noted the sudden change in demeanor. "There's something scary inside and I wouldn't want it to get out. I even had my friend seal it up with magic."

Not being one to trespass on private property, X quickly assured Fluttershy that he wouldn't go in her shed. It's probably just some wild animal that needs a time out, X reasoned.

"Well, it seems to be getting late." Fluttershy yawned. "I think I'll retire for the night. I'm afraid I don't have another bed; I don't usually get visitors here. I suppose you could sleep on the sofa, X?"

"That will be perfectly fine," X said. He didn't mention that he didn't actually need to sleep.

"Perhaps I can introduce you to my friends tomorrow. I don't know how the other ponies will react, but I'm sure it'll be fine." Fluttershy smiled.

"I think I'll look forward to meeting them." X replied.

"That's good. Well I'll be in my bedroom, so knock if you need anything. Goodnight, X." Fluttershy turned off the lights and went inside her room.

X walked over to the sofa and lay down. Being able to properly rest was refreshing.

So this is what it's like.
...
I'm bored.

X sat up and thought. It was certainly nice to stop worrying about mavericks, but it was also incredibly boring. He wanted to go outside to look around, but he wouldn't know how the ponies would react if them saw him.

Aha!

Pulling up his Variable Weapon System, X selected "Elf" from the list. X watched as his body slumped onto the sofa.

"I'll be back in a bit," X thought as he condensed his cyber elf form, visible only as a small, twinkling ball of rainbow light.

Luna sat inside her chambers, preparing her dreamwalker spell carefully.

I shall not be denied entrance to a dream!

She closed her eyes, and a small strand of blue magic left her horn and went out the window, shooting straight for Ponyville.

After a few minutes, she arrived at her destination and scanned around. She felt the peculiar blue aura emanating from Fluttershy's cottage. Luna's magic seeped through the window, and she was able to get a good look at X, who was apparently sleeping on the sofa.

"Being kind as always, my dear Fluttershy."

Luna approached X's body, and went inside his body through the red gem on his helmet.

Luna landed inside the same cyber-tunnel as last time; it hadn't changed at all. After a minute of uploading her information onto X's main system, she was beamed back into the same blue room as before, but it was noticeably darker. It was still as big as it was the last time she visited, although this time she was deposited mush closer to the firewall. This time, however, the firewall seem to be dimly lit, as if it was illuminated by candlelight. Luna looked up; there was the system clock telling the current time.

11:09 PM

Besides that, there wasn't really anything interesting on the outside half of the firewall. The interesting things would probably be on the other side. Luna slowly raised a hoof, and knocked on the firewall.

Out to lunch.
-X

Luna sat there, dumbfounded. Who the hay eats at night?!
Wait a minute. That isn't right. Luna chuckled silently at herself.

Perhaps I'm not the only one that eats at night on a regular basis.

She sat in front of the firewall and waited.

X floated outside of Fluttershy's cottage and began to travel down to Ponyville. X could move much faster now that he didn't have a physical form. He flew above Ponyville to get a bird's-eye view of the small town. In the distance he thought he could see a much larger city, although he couldn't see as clearly during the night, even if he did have night vision. Looking to the side he saw a big piece of farmland with trees covering the surrounding area. Looking up he thought he saw a house floating on a cloud.

I'm probably just imagining things.

He floated down to street level and scanned the area. There wasn't any ponies out at this hour. There was a building which looked like a gingerbread house. X raised a virtual eyebrow and moved on.

Passing through the center of the town, X noticed a big tree a short distance ahead. X floated over to it; it seemed to be a large oak tree with...doors and windows? X blinked, and wondered if his optical sensors were failing him. He saw that a window near the top of the tree was still lit. He floated up to take a quick peek.

Inside was a lavender pony with a horn, and it was reading a book. He noticed that the book was floating, a magenta aura surrounding the book and the pony's horn. X watched, entranced, until he noticed that the pony was staring straight back at him. After all, it was hard not to notice a bright sphere of rainbow light blinking outside your window.

Crap! Gotta run!

X quickly floated away while the lavender pony ran downstairs and bolted out of the tree.

"Wait! Come back!"

Twilight's magic aura reached out and seized X's form, but to her surprise her magic was unable to get a proper grip, and X slipped away. It was like grabbing running water. But X decided that this pony meant no harm, and floated back down.

"Hello there. What's your name?"

Twilight's eyes went wide as this ball of light seemed to be speaking to her.

"Um...my name is Twilight Sparkle. Might I ask what you are?"

X laughed. "I'm X, and I'm a robot. I'm not from this world." X decided to be blunt just to see her reaction.

Twilight's eyes went even wider as she heard this. "So...you're the one that caused the big magical explosion at the forest?"

Now it was X's turn to be surprised. "I was not aware about causing any explosions when I arrived."

"Maybe we can figure this out tomorrow. But if you're a robot, wouldn't you have a body?"

X replied,' Of course I have a body. It looks like this."

Twilight looked on as the small sphere of light began to expand. Soon X was in his full cyber elf form. X wore a blue robe with a cross on the front, and a halo of rainbow colored light above his helmet.

"So that's what you really look like?" Twilight asked.

"Sort of. My physical body is sleeping at Fluttershy's house. She found me in the Everfree Forest and she took me in."

Twilight looked surprised for a second, but it quickly passed. "That sounds just like her. She is the Element of Kindness after all."

X raised an eyebrow. "So you know each other?"

"Of course we do! She's the kindest pony you'll ever meet. Maybe tomorrow you'll meet the rest of my friends." Twilight said.

"That's the same thing Fluttershy told me," X replied. "I'll look forward to it."

A cold breeze blew, and Twilight shivered. "It's getting really late. Maybe I'll meet you tomorrow in...person?"

X nodded. "You have a good night, Twilight."

"You too, X."

Twilight walked back into the library, and X reverted into his light form, and floated his way back to his body.

Luna was still sitting in front of the firewall.

He sure is taking a long lunch break.

Suddenly, the room began to shake, and Luna scrambled to her hooves. X's systems were initializing, and the room and firewall noticeably got brighter. Soon they were as bright as daylight. Luna stood up straight, expecting something. Suddenly, the blue robot suddenly appeared next to Luna. He had a curious expression on his face.

"Did you need something?"

Author's Note

Silly Twi, everypony knows that you can't grab a ball of light. And how will Fluttershy react when she learns that X doesn't require sleep? And will Luna be allowed to see the other side of the firewall?

Weapon Get (Making Friends)

X looked at Luna and crossed his arms.

"Well?"

Luna was unsure how to reply, so she decided to be diplomatic with this foreign being.

"I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night, one of the two rulers of the nation of Equestria. I believe I do reserve the right to screen the minds of any visitors, hmm?"

X immediately realized who he was dealing with, and he wanted to make a good first impression on the rulers of this world. Not sure what to do, he invited Luna into his main system.

"To be honest, I've never had my mind scanned when I visited another country," X said as he placed his hand on the firewall. When the login prompt appeared, the username and password was filled in almost instantly, and Luna could see that the password was incredibly long. The firewall glowed for a moment, then a passage opened up, and X stepped inside.

"Come on in, Princess Luna."

"Just Luna will be fine," Luna replied as she stepped in.

Luna looked surprised as she examined the blue room. It appeared to be completely empty.

"I know what you're thinking Luna. Only I can see most of the things in here. Admin rights and all." X snapped his fingers, and a pair of blue chairs and a desk appeared in front of him.

"Have a seat."

Luna took a seat in one of the chairs. It was surprisingly soft and squishy, despite appearing to be made of wood. It reminded her of a certain spirit of chaos.

X sat down across from her, his arms resting on the desk. Only now did he realize that Luna had both a horn and wings.

I suppose this is because she is a princess.

"So what would you like to talk about?"

Luna cleared her throat. "When you arrived in the Everfree Forest yesterday, you seemed to have left a large magical explosion where you landed."

X frowned. "That's the same thing Twilight Sparkle told me."

"So you've met Twilight already? She is my sister's personal student, and she has a large amount of magical power. It was probably impossible for her to even miss the powerful burst of magic."

"So your sister is the other ruler of Equestria, I presume?"

Luna smiled. "You catch on very fast...um..."

"X."

"Oh, yes. You catch on very fast, X. My sister Celestia rules the sun, and the day is her domain."

"So do the both of you take turns ruling depending on the time of day?" X asked.

"I suppose we do. But I digress. I have a much more important message for you right now. You see, the magical aftershock may have woken certain creatures that live in the mountains beyond the Everfree. Creatures like dragons."

X's eyes widened. "You don't mean...?"

"I'm afraid so. When the creatures of the Everfree appear to attack the ponies, they always strike Ponyville, but Twilight and her friends are more than capable of repelling them. But I'm afraid that they won't be able to stop a violent dragon head on. Of course, I am not blaming you, X. I know that it was not your intention to harm anypony."

That's just great. Now I feel even worse.

"I will protect Ponyville."

Luna blinked. "We appreciate your concern, but you don't need to needlessly endanger you-"

"No, Luna. I'll protect the ponies. I've come here to attempt to start a new life. I've already lost too much in the past." There was a look of grief on X's face, and Luna knew that look almost better than anypony else.

"I take it that you are skilled in combat?"

"You have no idea."

"Very well then. Twilight will also receive a letter from my sister explaining the situation. In the meantime, you should probably make some friends here. You look like a good...person."

"Alright Luna, I'll keep that in mind." X smiled. "Is there anything else you need to talk to me about?"

"No, that will be all for now. Take care, X."

Luna stood up, and headed for the exit, except there was no obvious exit.

"Err...how do I get out of here?"

"Whoops," X had a big grin on his face. "I'll get you out of here in just a few moments."

X waved his hand, and a command prompt showed up. X typed a line of text into the window.

/kickuser Luna

"To the moon! Hahahaha!"

Luna screamed as she was kicked, for a second time, back into her room in Canterlot.

That was certainly an eventful night.

X sat up, his body's motor functions activating after being inactive for a full night. X turned his head; he saw Fluttershy outside, feeding the animals. He walked outside and greeted her.

"Good morning, Fluttershy."

"Eeep!" Fluttershy whirled around and nearly slammed into X.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you."

"That's quite alright, Fluttershy." X looked down and saw a small white bunny kicking at his feet, apparently angry for having its breakfast interrupted.

"Angel! Don't be so mean to our guest!" Fluttershy scolded.

Angel took another look at X before stomping away.

"So, X, would you like some breakfast?"

"Oh, no, I'm fine. I... don't require food."

Fluttershy looked very confused. "How do you get the energy to live?"

"I'm a robot. I'm absorb the energy of the sunlight mostly, and when there's no sun, I can run on my micro-fusion reactor."

"So...you're like a plant?"

"I suppose I am, in a way."

"Wow, that's amazing, X."

"I suppose. I was the only robot that ran mainly on solar power back in the day. The other reploids, they ran on a miniature nuclear generator, but I suppose Dr.Light was always eco-friendly. 'Always go green,' he said."

Fluttershy's eyes widened at the mention of Dr.Light, but did not say anything.

"Anyways, Fluttershy, what are we going to do today? Are we going down to Ponyville to see your friends?"

"Oh, that's right! I almost forgot!"

After telling Angel to be good and watch over the other animals, X and Fluttershy headed out to Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash was sitting on a cloud, rubbing her sore nose.

Stupid magical explosion. My nose hurts like buck right now.

Rainbow was about to lie back down on her cloud when she spotted Fluttershy and X walking into town. Rainbow squinted at the figure in blue. Then she remembered the magical explosion and something about teleportation that Twilight had mentioned before.

"Look out, Flutters! It's an alien!"

Rainbow dashed at X at her fastest speed, determined to save Fluttershy from this evil alien. X only had enough time to turn his head to look at a rainbow blur coming straight at him.

"What the...?!"

Rainbow slammed headfirst into X, which didn't make him budge or even flinch. Rainbow, on the other hand, was rolling on the ground in pain, clutching her wounded head.

"Rainbow! Are you alright?!"

Fluttershy raced over to Rainbow Dash, who was lying on the ground a few steps away from X.

"Why is his body so hard..." Rainbow mumbled as she blacked out.

"inbow...Rain..bow...are you all right?"

Ughhh...my head really hurts.

Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes to see her friends surrounding her, plus the blue alien. She looked to the side and saw the bookshelves around the wall. She realized that she was in the Ponyville library. Apparently her friends had placed her on the table.

"Girls! She's awake!" Twilight cried.

The six ponies and X gathered around Rainbow as she slowly pushed herself up.

"Ugh...what happened?"

Applejack was the first to speak. "Looks like this featherbrain tried to headbutt X here, without knowing that his body was made of metal."

Rarity was the next to speak. "X even carried you all the way here! Such a gentlecolt."

"And he walks on two legs!" Spike added.

"And he likes to party!" Pinkie added.

X laughed at the last one. "Only after we cleared out enough mavericks to take a break."

"How long have I been out?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, about 3 hours." Twilight replied.

"WHAT?! 3 HOURS? I STILL HAVE CLOUDS TO CLEAR!"

"Rainbow, wait!" Twilight caught Rainbow in her magic grasp as Rainbow Dash attempted to fly through the window. "There's something important we have to discuss!"

Rainbow Dash sat down with an exasperated look on her face.

"We still have to tell her about the dragon, girls." Twilight said.

"Dragon?!" Rainbow instantly perked up.

The gang filled Rainbow Dash in on the details of the dragon attack that may or may not happen, depending on how lucky they were.

"If you were knocked out when the dragon came, we woulda left without you!" Applejack teased.

"Oh, shut up Applejack, I could take a dragon down in ten seconds flat!"

Pinkie Pie had been sitting silently in the corner for some reason. But X noticed that she started twitching in strange and repeated patterns.

"Um...girls. Why is Pinkie twitching in that corner over there?"

"Twitcha twitch twitch!" Pinkie Pie did a knee jerk, a belly flop, and a back flip.

"A back flip? That's new." Spike commented.

The the ground began shaking uncontrollably. Rarity screamed and began to run, but Twilight held her back with her magic.

"Rarity! We're supposed to fight the dragon, not run from it!"

"Oh. Right." She regained her composure and calmly readjusted her mane.

X turned and looked at Fluttershy, who strangely hadn't said anything this whole time.

"Are you alright?"

"O-oh yes. I-I'm fine." Fluttershy stuttered. She was quite literally shaking in her hooves.

X narrowed his eyes. "You don't look fine."

"I-I assure you, I-I'm fine."

X simply nodded and hoped that Fluttershy would be alright.

"Good thing I've already asked the residents to stay in their homes! If we try to keep the dragon at the forest edge, it shouldn't do much harm." Twilight said.

"Alright! Let's move out!" cried Rainbow Dash.

The mane 6 plus X and Spike approached the Everfree. They saw that the angry dragon was already rampaging through the forest, its fire breath burning down trees around it. The dragon towered above Ponyville. X estimated that it was probably several stories tall.

"Um... maybe we could persuade it to leave...?" Fluttershy asked.

There was no chance for a reply, however, since the dragon began blowing fire at the ponies as soon as they tried to approach.

"Sorry Flutters, but I don't think this one's gonna listen!" Rainbow cried as she deftly dodged a razor sharp claw swiping through the air.

X stood on top of a tree, trying to get a clear shot at the dragon without hitting any of his friends. He charged his buster and fired. The powerful burst of solar energy hit the dragon in the side, forcing it to stumble, but not causing a lot of damage.

Why isn't it working?! My buster should be able to fire stronger shots than this!

X prepared another shot and fired it at the dragon's head, which made it flinch, but otherwise didn't cause a lot of damage.

These shots are noticeably weaker than how I remember them! Why won't it work?!

The dragon charged up a fireball and fired it at Twilight and Rarity, who were attempting to fire magic shots at the dragon, but weren't having much success. Twilight quickly cast a shielding spell, which took the brunt of the fireball attack, but it was wearing out Twilight, both physically and mentally.

X looked at his X-Buster, and back at the dragon.

This isn't going so well...

Pinkie was trying to launch firecrackers at the dragon in an attempt to distract it, but it wasn't working. "I really wish I had hired a monster hunter earlier!"

Applejack looked at Pinkie strangely. "What?"

"It doesn't concern you." Pinkie replied nonchalantly.

Fluttershy was flying around the dragon's head, attempting to convince it to leave.

"Maybe you could... go back to sleep, please?"

The dragon simply ignored her until a flying gemstone hit it right below the eye. The dragon growled and tried to swat Fluttershy with its tail, thinking that she had threw the gemstone at its eye.

"Oh no you don't!"

X dashed and jumped off the tree he was on, and shoved Fluttershy out of the way, taking the hit for her.

"Ugh!"

Fluttershy watched in horror as the dragon's tail hit X, slamming him against a tree so hard that it knocked the tree down.

"I'm calling for backup!" Twilight screamed as Spike burned a letter to Princess Celestia.

X got up and tried aiming his buster again. The bright flash of light missed as the dragon reached down and grabbed X.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Fluttershy cried as the dragon flung X back to Ponyville.

Twilight attempted to grab X with her magic, but she still couldn't hang on to X.

Why can't I grab him?!

X sailed through the air, his auto-balancer attempting to compensate for his lack of balance, but it wasn't quick enough as the dragon had thrown X really hard. X tried to predict where we would land and he braced himself for the fall.

The shed.

X crashed into the top of the shed, the impact smashing it into thousands of tiny fragments. He had hit his head against something hard and...metallic? X looked up, and his eyes went wide as he saw it.

It was a familiar looking capsule, one that X had encountered many times in the past. He had no idea why it was in Fluttershy's shed, nor did he know if Fluttershy knew what it was. The capsule lit up and a hologram of Dr.Light appeared.

"X? What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing, Doctor. How did you survive this long?"

"I really have no idea, X. How many years has it been, my son?"

"It's been 500 years, plus we aren't even in the same world, Doctor. It really is a miracle! But why are you doing inside Fluttershy's shed?"

"I was actually in the forest when I came here. Some purple pony found me and wanted to do 'experiments' on my capsule so she left me in this shed and locked it up."

X stared for a second. "Well, the ponies seem to be the sentient species on this world."

"I can see that," Dr.Light replied. A scream suddenly rang out from the forest. "What is going on over there, X?"

X's eyes widened. "We're fighting off a rampaging dragon over there! I almost forgot! I have to go save them!"

X attempted to dash back to the forest, but the pain kept him from moving forward.

"Are you okay, my son? When was the last time you performed maintenance on your body?"

X shrugged. "I...don't remember. It think it was...300 years ago?" The realization suddenly hit him. "300 years ago! No wonder I can't fight!"

Dr.Light beckoned X into the capsule. "Come inside," he urged. "You need repairs."

X, having no choice, climbed into the capsule, where a tinted piece of glass slid down, obscuring his vision.

"Do you have armor for me, Doctor?"

"I'm afraid not, X. You see, you were meant to discover this capsule last."

"What do you mean, Doctor? I don't understand." X said, as a robotic arm reached inside X's buster and began cleaning it.

"You're simply not strong enough to use the armor contained in this capsule, X. You need to find the other armor sets before you can use this one."

"You mean there are other capsules in Equestria?!"

Dr.Light simply nodded.

"Doctor, how do you manage to scatter capsules everywhere I go?"

"It's a trade secret, X. Now go, my son, save your friends!"

The capsule opened, and X stepped out, his body in mint condition.

"And remember, X. There's always a more peaceful way to make your enemies leave."

X looked back at the capsule again.

"Thanks, dad."

X dashed off, with a different resolve in his eyes.

"What's taking the Royal Guard so long?!" Twilight screamed, as she blocked another hit from a fireball. "I can't hold out much longer!"

All six ponies were hiding behind Twilight's magic shield now, and Twilight was really straining to keep it up.

"I really hope X is alright..." Fluttershy said, with a tear in her eye.

Suddenly, X rocketed out of nowhere and landed in front of Twilight.

"X! You're alright!" Twilight cried!

"It'll take more than that to bring a Maverick Hunter down."

X glowed blue as he charged his newly repaired X-buster and fired at the dragon. There was a massive explosion as the fully powered shot forced the dragon down. Everypony gasped as the blast left a visible wound where it hit. The dragon roared in anger as it tried to charge at X again, but X was quicker. Dashing at speeds that impressed Rainbow Dash, X drew out the Z-Saber and slashed at the dragon's lower leg. Forcing the dragon down, X charged his buster once more and fired on the dragon's wing. There was a loud roar of pain as the dragon stumbled and fell flat on its back. X approached the dragon and pointed the X-buster at its head, but quickly disarmed his weapon.

Nonviolent way to end this...

He could see some pegasi with golden armor flying towards them in the distance. If he didn't end this now, the Royal Guard would end it for him. So X walked back over to the 6 ponies (and Spike) and asked them how they wanted to end this. Not surprisingly, Fluttershy spoke first.

"I would prefer that the dragon was allowed to leave," she said in a gentle but assertive voice. "After all, it was just woken from its nap."

Rainbow Dash was about to object, but Applejack pulled her down and shook her head.

"Very well then. Stay still, Fluttershy."

X pressed his hand on Fluttershy's cutie mark, eliciting a collective gasp from all the mares. A bright light surrounded X and Fluttershy, forcing everypony to shield their eyes, and it faded as quickly as it came.

X felt a powerful sense of kindness welling up inside him, and maybe felt a bit more timid as well.

Fluttershy gasped as she looked up at X. X looked different. He looked the same, but he also looked different at the same time. More specifically, his colors now matched Fluttershy; his body and legs were now a shade of buttery yellow, and his helmet was pink. Fluttershy's cutie mark appeared on the side of his buster. Even his eye color changed to the same shade of cyan as Fluttershy.

Everypony stared as X walked over to the dragon and made eye contact with it. X didn't say anything. He somehow knew that he had to stare at the dragon to make it leave. He could feel the stare begin to drain him of its weapon energy. X could see the dragon begin to cower in front of him.

Fluttershy watched X stare at the dragon. Then, as if some invisible force was guiding her, she also walked up to the dragon, and stared at it. Having two beings using the Stare on it was too much. The dragon magically found the strength to get up and run away, far from Ponyville, despite having numerous wounds on its body.

The remaining ponies looked flabbergasted as they realized what X had just did to Fluttershy.

"I thought he was blue!"

X looked at the sky. He could see a crowd of pegasi guards approaching them. Looking behind them, he saw a large white alicorn, with a flowing multicolored mane. He knew who that was; Luna had already told him about the ruler of the sun.

"Princess Celestia?" X called out.

The other ponies looked surprised, especially Twilight, seeing how she hadn't explained to him about the rulers of Equestria.

The Princess and the guards landed next to Twilight and her friends. She quickly began to shout orders to the guards.

"Make sure Ponyville is secure! Check for any that are injured or otherwise hurt, and prepare to search for that dra-"

"That won't be necessary, your highness."

X walked up to the Princess and bowed politely, then continued.

"Fluttershy and I have already dealt with the situation, your highness. There should be no need to send your troops out."

Celestia eyed X carefully. So this is the visitor that we sensed?

She continued to look at X. He was a biped with hands, not unlike Spike, and seemed to be wearing wearing a helmet, a vest, and boots. His body was a light shade of yellow, and his helmet was pink, like Fluttershy.

Like Fluttershy.

His physical description matches what Luna told me, but his color is off! I thought he was blue, not pink and yellow!

"Very well then. My guards will make sure that everypony is alright."

Celestia turned to Twilight and her friends, her demeanor changing immediately.

"My faithful student, are you and your friends alright? I didn't expect such a...large dragon to appear. The larger ones tend to be in a deeper slumber, more so than the smaller ones."

"We're alright, Princess. Good thing Shining showed me some shielding spells. I bet I could give him a run for his money!" Twilight smiled.

"That's very good, my student. And how did you drive the dragon away? Was..was it you?" Celestia pointed a hoof at X.

"It was. I had to soften it with a few buster shots. I only used half-charged shots, so there shouldn't be any lasting damage." X morphed his left arm into the X-buster, making the guards tense up for a split second. A bright blue light shone from inside the buster. On the side of the buster was Fluttershy's cutie mark.

"It compresses solar energy for me to fire at enemies. I hope you don't mind if I borrow your sun, Princess. My whole body runs on solar power; if there was no sun, I would have to run on my fusion reactor, which is a lot less efficient and a lot messier."

"I...see. But why is Fluttershy's cutie mark on it? And why are you colored like Fluttershy?"

Crap! I forgot to turn it off!

"That's...my Variable Weapon System. It allows me to copy anyone's special weapons or abilities. Or to put it simply, I copy their special talent."

The ponies looked at X like he was crazy.

Twilight was the first to speak up. "But that's...insane! Special talents are supposed to be unique to everypony! If they were copied...it wouldn't be unique anymore..." Twilight trailed off.

"Of course I know that, Twilight. At best, it'll only be a cheap imitation of the original ability."

Unless I have a arm upgrade.

"So you copied her talent because...?"

"Fluttershy had told me that her talent was caring for animals. That's when I knew that she might have been able to tame that dragon, if she had been more assertive."

"Don't worry, X," Fluttershy said. "I don't mind if you use my talent. I could always use some help taking care of animals. You did save my life after all." She smiled.

"He saved your life?" Celestia asked.

"He sure did, Princess," Rainbow spoke up. "One second that dragon was going to hit Fluttershy with its tail, and BAM, X comes jumping off a tree, and pushes her out of the way," Rainbow waved her hoof dramatically. "He even took the hit for her! If that isn't loyal, I don't know what is."

Celestia was shocked at what X had done. "He took a direct hit from its tail attack?"

"Yep! And then the dragon picked him up and tossed him back to Ponyville! I'm surprised that he didn't break the forth wall." Pinkie helpfully added.

Celestia looked completely shocked at the damage that X would have taken if he was a pony. The tail attack would have shattered the skeleton of any normal pony. Only now did she realize that X didn't even have a scratch on his body.

"But... you don't even have a scratch on you!" Celestia stammered.

"That's because..." X's eyes widened.

A pegasus guard flew over to Princess Celestia.

"Princess, we didn't find anypony hurt, or any property destroyed, except for a broken shed behind a house next to he Everfree."

Fluttershy turned to X.

"Um... I can explain!" X said, throwing his arms up defensively.

"...and that's how I broke the shed." X explained as everypony walked towards X's crash site.

"Oh my! Are you hurt?" Fluttershy asked, as she began flying all around X to check for wounds.

"I'm fine, although I must ask, why was my capsule doing in the shed?"

"About that... wait, a capsule?" Twilight looked very confused. "I thought it was just a metal plate."

"Where did you find it?" X asked.

"We found it behind Sugarcube Corner," Twilight explained. "I saw Pinkie and Rainbow Dash banging on it, so I went over to look at it. I was going to study it, but there was no more space at the library, so I asked Fluttershy if I could leave it in her empty shed."

"I seriously hope that you weren't planning to take it apart. My creator lives in those capsules."

Pinkie did a double take. "He WHAT?! How could anything live in something so itty-bitty?!"

X simply smiled. "You'll see, Pinkie."

He then turned to Fluttershy. "Um...sorry about your shed. I can build you a new one really quick! I just have to punch a few trees."

"Don't worry about the shed, X. It was so old that it probably would have collapsed by itself anyways."

The group arrived at Fluttershy's cottage. There were a few guards standing towards the back of the cottage. They made their way to the back garden and looked at where the shed had used to be. Applejack looked very impressed.

"If I ever need a barn taken down, I'll know who to call." Applejack joked.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow shouted.

As the two ponies continued arguing, X made his way towards the wreckage. He began to pick up chunks of wood and effortlessly tossed them aside. Applejack looked even more impressed at how quickly X was clearing the wreckage.

"Now I know who to call if I need to clean up a wrecked farm," she joked.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

As the two ponies continued their arguing, everyone else had gathered around the uncovered capsule.

"How do you-" Twilight began.

X simply put a hand up to silence the ponies, including Applejack and Rainbow Dash. He approached the capsule. The red gem on X's helmet flashed briefly, and the capsule opened up. A white light lit up from the inside, and Dr.Light's hologram appeared in front of them.

"X? What are you doin-" Dr.Light stared at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow stared back. Pinkie sat and waved back at the Doctor.

"You!" Dr.Light pointed at the two ponies. "It was you two hitting my capsule! I thought it would never end!"

Pinkie shrank back a little bit. "Um...we're sorry?"

"And you!" Dr.Light pointed at Twilight this time. "You really must demonstrate your magic more often. I would love to study the magic in this land."

Twilight smiled. "Thank you, um..."

"Doctor Light."

"Oh, yes. Thank you, Dr.Light. I'd love to show you the magic of Equestria!"

"Looks like Twilight found a study buddy..." Rainbow Dash grumbled.

Author's Note

Sorry for the late update. Life can get really busy. I'll try to pump out more chapters, but don't expect too much.

Resource Hunting

"Would you like a cupcake?" Pinkie asked, while balancing a cupcake on her nose. She took a step towards the capsule, and lost her balance.

"Whoops!"

The cupcake sailed through the air, going straight through Dr.Light's hologram body, and landed on the ground with a splat.

"My glorious cupcake!" Pinkie cried while burying her face in her hooves. The others simply looked shocked for a moment. Twilight recovered first.

"Don't mind Pinkie. She's always like that."

Doctor Light gave a hearty laugh. "No worries here, Miss Sparkle. I think I might enjoy my time here." He then turned to X. "Now, X. Did you need anything?"

"Well first of all," X pointed to the shattered remains of the shed. "I should probably fix up Fluttershy's shed."

Dr.Light nodded. "I suppose you could go punch some trees for the wood needed."

"Now hold on a minute," Applejack interjected. "What's this about punching trees?"

"Come with me then, girls." X said. "Of course, the Princess is also welcome to come."

The ponies (and Spike, who had not been mentioned by anypony thus far) followed X back into the Everfree Forest. He looked around for a good tree for wood, and after a quick scan he chose a sturdy looking tree. He then proceeded to punch the tree repeatedly until it crashed to the ground. X pulled out the Z-Saber from his back and sliced off the top branches of the tree.

Didn't think I'd ever use this to chop wood, old friend.

The ponies (especially Applejack, whose jaw dropped to the ground) watched with a bewildered expression as X lifted the tree onto his shoulder and carried it back to Fluttershy's back garden.

After arriving back at Fluttershy's back garden, the Princess bid farewell after the guards reported no injuries or property damage had occurred.

"I still have responsibilities back at Canterlot. I'll be back soon," Princess Celestia said. "Make sure to give our guest a good impression of our land." She smiled.

"Write back soon!" Twilight cried as Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at her. Everyone waved as the Princess entered her royal carriage and the guards flew off. X soon turned his attention to the tree he had brought back, saber in hand.

"X, all you did was chop those trees into planks and stack them like building blocks. How can this building possibly hold its own against even a strong wind?!"

Twilight had been pestering X ever since he started chopping trees into planks and began stacking them on top of each other like building blocks, complaining how the planks would simply topple over if something hit it, among other things. Unbeknownst to her, X had simply turned his audio receptors off as he continued to chop trees into planks with his Z-Saber, occasionally venturing back to the Everfree and returning with another tree, and stacking the planks in a neat pile behind him.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were lounging around in the garden. Applejack had wanted to help, but she couldn't possibly lift a whole tree by herself, and she couldn't cut said tree into planks. She decided on sitting down and begrudgingly watched X continue to cut trees.

"I reckon that he'd be a great help on the barn," Applejack said quietly to herself.

Fluttershy and Rarity had retreated back into the cottage to talk over a cup of tea, occasionally looking outside to check on how X was doing. Rarity almost spit out her tea when she saw the large pile of wood behind X, and complimented him on his speed in making each plank precisely the same dimensions. X, however, did not hear her, seeing that his audio receptors were still off. Rarity simply attributed this to X's undivided attention to cutting wood, and went back inside the cottage.

After a while of woodcutting, X stared at the plot of land where the shed used to be. His eyes surveyed the land, carefully calculating every angle, every dimension that would be needed for this project. He looked to the sides; the ponies were still doing whatever it was that they were doing. Slowly, X stood up and quietly walked downtown. It would be a nice way to repay the ponies that had shown him nothing but kindness.

This will be perfect.

X looked up at the sun. It was past midday, and his plans would have to wait.

Not now. Later.

A few days later...

X walked around Ponyville, with ponies greeting him all along the way. They had been a bit cautious at first, but after the dragon incident they seemed to have opened up to him. He had decided to visit Twilight and Spike, as well as checking out a book or two. X dashed to the library in ten seconds flat, with the added advantage of not damaging the library in any way whatsoever by braking almost instantly. He walked into the library and saw Spike, who was busy reorganizing the bookshelves.

"Hey, Spike!" X called out. "How's my favorite biped doing?" X waved his hand.

"Oh, hey X! Did you need anything?" Spike jumped down from the ladder he was on. The two had become fairly close friends, seeing how they were the few males around Ponyville, as well as being the only bipeds.

"I just wanted to take a look around. Where's Twilight?"

"She's just at the old bookstore. Book hunting as always."

X nodded at Spike, and continued to walk around the bookshelves, scanning for any books of interest. A bright red book caught his attention, and he pulled it out of the shelf.

"101 Basic Spells for Adolescent Unicorns?"

Physics

"101 Basic Spells for Adolescent Unicorns?" X went over to Spike and inquired about the book.

"What's this?" Spike flipped through a few pages of the thick text. "Oh, I remember now. Twilight was teaching Sweetie Belle with this book."

"Sweetie Belle? Who's that?"

"Oh, you probably haven't met her yet. She's Rarity's sister. See?" Spike walked over to a shelf and retrieved a photo of Rarity and Sweetie Belle posing and handed it to X.

X took the photo and looked closely at it. "They do look similar, marshmallow body and all," thought X. "By the way, why would you have a photo of Rarity and Sweetie Belle on your shelf anyways?" X asked as he handed the photo back to Spike.

"Err... no reason. I should really get back to reorganizing the shelves!" Spike appeared to be sweating profusely, despite the fact that dragons probably don't sweat, and raced off.

X paid Spike no attention as he picked up the book and began flipping through the first few pages.

"Light shows...color changing spells...basic levitation?"

Usually the first spell learned, the basic levitation skill is a must have for all unicorns. This necessary spell lays the foundation for nearly all other spells and is a necessity for daily life. The unicorn should first empty his/her mind beforehand, and focus the magical energies in the horn on the desired object. Then the unicorn should focus the magic upwards to lift the object up and about. Practice should help with focusing the magic, which is a problem that most young unicorns have. More experienced unicorns can empty the mind quicker, levitate multiple objects and levitate objects while in motion, and grab objects not in the unicorn's direct line of sight, as long as he/she knows the approximate location of the object behind an obstacle.

For a moment X thought, what if he could really pull this off? Well, for one, he didn't have a horn, and he didn't think he had any magic inside his body that he could focus. But he wouldn't know unless he tried. And then he realized something very important, a detail that might have been missed if it weren't for his first day spent in the Everfree Forest.

I've been running purely on sunlight ever since I came here...no machine could harness solar power at 100% efficiency back on Earth. My micro-fusion reactor hasn't run at all for a while. The sun here really is magical. Maybe if I could harness it...hopefully Celestia won't mind.

X scooted next to a window where the sun shone through. It was a clear day, and the sunlight radiated brightly over Ponyville. He positioned himself in such a way that the light shone on most of his body. Almost immediately, the sunlight began to power his systems with no wasted energy, and allowed his auto-repair systems to operate at maximum output (not that he needed it right now). X pulled the spell textbook over and read through the instructions once more. What really bothered him was the fact that he didn't have a horn to focus magic with.

Instead he tried to focus the light energy in the red gem on his helmet. It cast a dim red glow as X tried pointing his hand at the magic book he had purposely left on a nearby desk. His eyes narrowed as he focused completely on the book, his hands slowly gaining a distinct blue aura, deep as the midnight sky. As X moved his hand upwards, his helmet gem glowed noticeably brighter. He shifted his position again to match his position with the sun slowly moving across the sky. The book was surrounded by a blue-red aura as X willed it to fly upwards. It flew up, and floated into his hand. X sat in silence for a few moments, then focused his magic on the Z-Saber sheathed on his back. The blue-red aura grabbed it and spun the handle into his hand, activating the blade before dissipating.

X stared at the extended saber in his hands for a few moments, then he really laughed, for the first time in centuries.

"Hmm...that is quite intriguing. I must really study this more."

Twilight was discussing the magic of Equestria to the good Doctor Light, who was giving Twilight his full undivided attention. Being a man of knowledge, the Doctor aspired to know everything he could about the magic that made up this world.

"So tell me, Twilight, what is the difference in the magic of the three races?"

Twilight put a hoof to her chin and thought for a brief moment. "Well, the pegasi, the ponies of the sky, have their own magic of controlling the weather and being to walk on clouds like a solid object. Unicorns have a cloudwalking spell that can be cast on non-pegasi, but it's not permanent and has to be regularly recasted to reinforce the spell, or else the results can be...ugly. Also, the pegasi magic allows them to fly, even though their wings may appear to be small, but their innate magic generates much more lift than you might expect. If their magic is interfered with somehow, it could seriously hinder their flying and cloudwalking abilities."

Dr.Light was furiously storing the information into his capsule for later reference.

"Next, we have the earth ponies. The earth ponies have superior strength and stamina compared to other ponies, and their special ties to the earth and nature make them the only race to be able to grow plants."

"So they're the only race that can produce crops and food?"

"You could say that, I suppose. The other races have tried to grow food many times in history, but they were mostly ineffective, so they eventually gave up and mostly depended on earth ponies for food."

"I see..." said Dr.Light as he busied himself with storing the information.

"And lastly, we have the unicorns. The unicorns can actively use magic by focusing it on their horns. Their magic can be used to manipulate objects, telekinesis, teleportation, walking through walls..."

A few minutes later...

"...heat objects and mind control!"

Dr.Light was scrambling to capture everything Twilight had said onto a data file. After a few more moments he managed to finish.

"Whew...that sure took a while. And...my goodness, look at the time!" Dr.Light looked up at the sky. It was already late in the afternoon.

"Sweet Celestia! I better get back to the library! Spike is still watching the library!"

Dr.Light laughed. "I suppose we can talk another time. But before you go, could you do a small favor for me?"

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Could you just levitate something into the capsule and leave it floating for a few moments?"

Twilight gave an odd look at this request, but complied anyways. She levitated a cube of wood that X had left behind the other day and gently floated it above Dr.Light's holographic hand. He placed his hand around the magenta aura surrounding the cube. The capsule closed up and a bright flash of light was all Twilight could see from the outside. After a few seconds, it opened back up, and Twilight levitated the wood cube back where it was beforehand.

"Thank you, Twilight. That was all that I needed."

Twilight smiled and nodded. As she trotted back towards town, Dr.Light's capsule closed and folded up into its dormant state again.

"I wonder what that was all about?"

Later that day, ponies reported odd lights coming from the strangest of places. Some saw a strange capsule-shaped object glow briefly around Canterlot. For some odd reason, nopony had been able to reliably locate the strange glowing capsules. A certain yellow pegasus with a pink, curly mane saw a bright light shine in the deeper parts of the Everfree from her home. She decided to tell X after he returned from the library later.

Night

"Spike?"

Twilight sensed a large amount of solar magic coming from inside the library. Slowly, she began to open the library door. What she saw shocked her.

X and Spike were reorganizing the entire library. X pulled out books with his hands, Spike reordered them neatly in a pile, and X used his magic to place the books back on the shelves. What intrigued Twilight was the fact that X could use his hands independently of his magic. He didn't appear to be focusing on his magic at all. Another thing that she found strange was that X's magic aura had two colors, dark blue and bright gold. She stepped inside the library. X detected her movements and responded immediately.

"Hey Twilight! Nice to have you back!"

"How are you..."

"I read your book on magic spells. Spike told me that you were teaching Sweetie Belle with it."

"But why does your magic aura have two colors?!"

"Huh? Well first of all, I realized that since my body could run on solar energy alone, then I could probably access the magic from the sun. So I guess that's solar magic? And as for why my magic has two colors... I guess blue makes sense for me, but...red?" X looked at his helmet gem. It wasn't glowing red anymore. It was glowing gold.

"Yeah," Spike said. "He said that he lives off sunlight or something like that."

Twilighy went wide-eyed. "This is simply fascinating! You have to let me study you!"

"I don't like that look in her eyes, Spike."

"Ermm...X, you should probably get out of here. I'll handle Twi."

X dramatically pointed at the clock. "Oh, it's getting really late! I should really get back to Fluttershy's place. See, the sun's going down. I can't even raise this book with my magic anymore!"

Surely enough, the gold in X's magic was now tinted red, and the levitating book had refused to be controlled by his now weak magic.

"Surely Fluttershy won't mind if you spend a night here to study, hmm?"

"Yeah, I really should go now. Seeyoulatertwilight!"

X's feet kicked into overdrive as he dashed straight out the door.

"But I wanna study you!" Twilight whined as X bolted off into the distance.

X walked slowly down the path to Fluttershy's house. The sun was down now; the moon had taken its place. X let the moonlight shine on him. For some reason, X felt his Variable Weapon System react. He tapped his arm to check his Special Weapons. There was only one active weapon to choose from, a yellow icon labeled 'Fluttershy' with her cutie mark on it. The weapon appeared to be recharging at a slow pace as the moonlight shined on X. Which was a big deal to him, since using the Stare took a quarter of its weapon energy every 15 seconds, and it hadn't been charging since the dragon incident since X had been staying indoors at night, where the moonlight doesn't reach.

X thought of Luna, the Princess of the Night, who had visited his mind during the nights when he had first arrived. She had used her magic to enter his mind, despite him being a robot born of science. Perhaps magic could be fused with technology? X was more than capable of building a reploid. He may not know his internal workings to the fullest extent, but he still knew enough to fashion a decent looking reploid and write an AI and personality for it.

But he would be careful. Never again did he build a reploid after the days working with Dr.Cain, the man who had unsealed his pod many, many years ago. Not after those reploids went Maverick. He still remembered the day that he and Dr.Cain had constructed the first reploid. He also remembered the day when it had started threatening the humans and X had retired it himself. A single shot to the head. The memory had been burned into his data files. He had never forgotten. Nor would he ever forget. Never, never never.

X shook his head to clear out the bad thoughts. He instead looked at the moon. He thought it was a beautiful moon, almost magical. X suddenly realized that it was indeed magical as he levitated some rocks, his magical glow shining a deep midnight blue. He knew this magic was weak. The magic from the sun and moon were weak because they were not his. He was only using borrowed power.

"Perhaps someday I'll find my own magic." X said aloud as he continued to walk towards Fluttershy's cottage.

A few minutes later...

X walked into Fluttershy's cottage, where she was preparing dinner for her animals and herself.

"Oh! It's you, X. You surprised me."

"Sorry about that. I've had a lot on my mind lately." X said.

"Perhaps we can talk about it later?" Fluttershy asked.

"Maybe tomorrow."

X did not seem to be in a good mood. So Fluttershy simply did what she did best, which was to offer him kindness.

"Would you like some dinner?" Fluttershy asked this quite often, although X usually turned her offers of food down. "I don't need to eat," X would say.

X thought for a bit. "Actually, dinner would be quite nice."

Fluttershy looked surprised that he had decided to accept this time, and smiled.

"Will that be a vegetable salad, or a fruit salad?"

Author's Note

X's first maverick incident will be explained in the next chapter.

Equal Opportunity Employer

"Hello?"

X looked at his system to see Luna knocking on his firewall again.

"It's been a while since you last visited, Princess." X said as he opened the firewall to let Luna step in.

"Indeed it has. So I've come to talk to you about some things. Hopefully this isn't too late at night."

"No worries, Princess. I don't... require sleep. It's a good thing too. Back where I came from, you wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep if you had a job like mine."

Luna gave X an odd look. "Tell me then, X. Why have you left your home to come to our land?"

"It's a long story, Princess. To be honest, if you had these things called computers, I'd simply leave the data on a disk and be done with it. It would be much simpler that way." X looked down. "But I no longer wish to see any more computers. I've spent too much time fighting and too much time looking at screens during my life."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "So what Celestia said was true. You do have combat experience, don't you?"

"I do, Princess. Several hundred years of combat experience. I wasn't even in my own body for several of those wars."

"Your world sounds... chaotic."

"It is, Princess. It really is. It wears you down, even if you're not in your own body. I simply want to enjoy some peace, and your world seems peaceful enough." X looked Luna in the eyes. "I mean no harm to the ponies here. If you would allow me to live out my life here in peace, I would be eternally grateful. My old world holds nothing anymore."

Luna looked back at X. "You are an odd one, X. You are skilled in combat, yet you do not enjoy fighting. You fought for your world, and yet you left it. You are a walking paradox." Luna smiled. "Fine then. Me and Celestia will let you stay if you prove your worth. You like the peace, don't you? And you're good at fighting. You have a mellow personality, too. A very good combination for a Royal Guard."

X looked up. "You don't mean..."

"We leave for Canterlot tomorrow at dawn. Don't worry, a carriage will take you there. I don't expect you to know where Canterlot is."

"But...I'm not a pony. Wouldn't your Guards think it strange to let someone like me to serve with them? And I don't enjoy fighting wars."

"Don't worry. We're an equal opportunity employer. And we haven't had a war in a few hundred years. Of course, your friends will come too. I've already told them about it. Captain Shining Armor has been meaning to see his sister anyways."

"Captain..." X look thoughtfully for a moment. "You know, Luna. My men used to call me 'Captain". I'll always be a B-Class Hunter at heart."

Luna smiled. "I'm sure you and Shining Armor will get along just fine. Don't forget to bring a weapon with you."

X waved his hand and smiled as Luna logged out of his system. He pulled out his Z-Saber from the side of his leg and watched as the bright green blade extended in front of his face. He looked at his reflection for a few moments as his systems prepared for sleep mode.

From the outside, X smiled as he lay on Fluttershy's sofa, basking in the moonlight.

"P-Princess Luna?!"

Several pegasi-drawn carriages had gathered around the town square, but none of the Mane Six expected to see Princess Luna herself.

"I have a special guest to bring with us." She nodded at X. "He is coming too."

Applejack patted X on his back, making a soft clang each time she did so. "Nice to have ya' with us! I guess you can carry our luggage for us. Hahahahaha!"

She stopped laughing when X proceeded to carry everypony's luggage in his arms and piled it on a larger carriage that he assumed was for the luggage. "So, are we ready? I don't have any luggage, by the way. I don't really have any belongings..."

After a few minutes of preparation, the pegasi flew up towards Canterlot as some other townsponies looked on.

"Wait!" cried a mint green unicorn. "I wanted to see that guy's arms..." she said sadly as she slumped down on a nearby park bench.

"So this is Canterlot..." X mused as he looked down at the mountainside city. As with any capital worthy of a great nation, the streets were covered by telltale signs of commerce, the lifeblood of any successful nation. The land was covered with tall stone buildings, and everywhere you could see the busy activities of the ponies below.

For whatever reason, a mysterious force was compelling X to visit the mountains outside of Canterlot as soon as possible, and the urge only got greater as he got closer to the city.

The carriage landed in front of Canterlot Castle, and the pegasi proceded to escort the ponies out. X was about to pick up all the luggage, but an earth pony Guard beat him to it and carted it all away. Applejack shot X a sheepish smile.

Under the watchful eyes of the shield and spear-wielding Guards at the gate, X and all the other ponies walked into the castle. X was awed by the beautiful architecture of the castle, while Twilight fed him facts about the castle like a walking encyclopedia.

"Did you know Canterlot Castle was assembled by magic? After all the ponies mined up all the stone needed, the unicorns used their magic to piece the castle together!"

"Don't forget the earth ponies did the actual mining," grumbled Applejack.

"And don't forget that the pegasi kept the weather clear while the building was going on." Rainbow Dash crossed her front hooves as she hovered above the ground.

"Didn't think somepony like you could remember a historical fact like that one." Rarity helpfully commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

As RD and Rarity bickered in the back, Twilight caught sight of a familiar somepony.

"Shining!" she cried as she practically flew at him.

"Twily!" Shining Armor caught Twilight in his magic and the two hugged.

"X, this is Shining Armor. He's my brother!" Twilight said proudly.

"Pleased to meet you." X said, as he offered his hand. The two shook hands/hooves.

Luna silently trotted over to Shining and whispered something.

"So you're the one Princess Celestia was talking about! You're the one who drove off the dragon! Well, now I'll believe the princesses when they said it was a capable recruit into the Royal Guard. You're a good fighter, aren't you?" Shining Armor leaned in closer to X and whispered, "Actually, we've been getting some really wimpy recruits and it takes forever to whip them into shape." Shining Armor stepped back again and cried, "Well, per the request of the two princesses, you'll prove your worth...by fighting me! If you beat me, I'll let you skip boot camp."

The other ponies gasped, except for Rainbow Dash. "Watching a fight in the Royal Arena? So awesome!"

Twilight, however, was unsure of how to feel letting a new friend engage a family member in combat. Luna saw her expression and leaned over to ease her anxiety. "Do not fret, Twilight. We'll see to it that the both of them do not get seriously hurt."

They won't get seriously hurt. Well that's comforting.

Missing?

Shining Armor whispered to one of the other Guards nearby, then said, "Will you look at the time? I'd better go find my wife. She's probably still waiting for me. Why don't you all let X explore the city? It's still early, and I have to attend to some business. Maybe someone could be his tour guide?"

Everyone stared at Fluttershy.

"W-what?"

"Hey, you found him," said Rainbow Dash. "Besides, you know him best, right?"

"I guess..."

"Well, that settles it!" Rarity said. "I must go catch up on the latest fashions in Canterlot!"

"And I need to go to the library!"

"And me and Applejack need to finish what we started. I challenge you to a RACE!"

"Oh, you're on!"

"I need to PARTY!"

Everyone stared at Pinkie Pie.

"What?"

"I suppose that settles it then. Now, it's not good to stay indoors all day, so run along now, my little ponies." Luna shot a teleportation spell at X and Fluttershy. Well, Fluttershy disappeared. When the spell hit X, it made a metallic 'ping!' as X flashed blue and the spell faded.

"What happened to Fluttershy?" X asked, puzzled.

Luna scrunched her face and shot a higher-powered teleportation spell, which managed to teleport X 1 meter backwards.

"Shall I try, Princess?" Twilight asked.

Luna silently nodded, and Twilight fired a high-density bolt of teleport magic at X. X's metallic 'ping!' struck again, as X flashed blue and reappeared 3 feet away from where he previously was.

"Err... you know, maybe I should just, you know, walk outside and find Fluttershy myself." X laughed nervously and walked out of the castle. Once out of sight, he began dashing onto the streets of Canterlot.

"X, wait!" Twilight Sparkle cried. She had just teleported Fluttershy back into the castle, but X was far too fast for her.

X wandered around the aptly named Canterlot Park, a popular tourist attraction due to its beauty and proximity to the castle. Looking around the fountain and benches, he saw no Fluttershy here. Sensing oncoming stares from the ponies around him, he waved at them, which caused them to quickly turn away and walk off. Disappointed, X walked to the side of the park path and sat down on a nearby bench. He stared idly at the flowing fountain until a small bird landed on his shoulder.

"Why, hello there, little birdie."

The bird chirped, as expected.

X continued to stare idly at the fountain in front of him, this time with a bird perched on his shoulder.

This might be a good time to do some maintenance.

X began to play around a bit with his internal settings, checking his system status and the like. All systems reported green. Bored, X looked at his battle systems.

It's been so long since I've had to use this.

X's battle systems were partially built from the original Mega Man's data bank after Doctor Light had deemed it necessary and proper to give X a way to protect himself and those around him from whatever threat there might be. However, Mega Man had only fought Robot Masters, who were much less sophisticated than the reploids that X had been fighting, thus, the combat experience from Mega Man was too simple to use and was largely rendered obsolete after X gained his own experience fighting reploid Mavericks. He did notice that the old system was used slightly when fighting the dragon prior to coming to Canterlot.

There was plenty of empty space where armor parts were stored, although X doubted that any of his old armor would be compatible with his new frame. There was, however, plenty of space for additional Heart and Energy tanks, but he doubted that he could get his hands on more tanks. On his Special Weapon slots was an icon of Fluttershy's cutie mark and a full weapon gauge next to it. There was plentiful space for storing weapons, and scrolling to the very bottom of the list was a pile of faded icons next to weapons he had but could not use.

X looked at a chunk of weapon data that might be salvageable, and moved it to the top of the list. Apparently this data was acquired the most recently, if you could call the time between arriving in Equestria and being sealed in that pod 'recent'. It was simply labeled "X8".

He tried activating the data set, apparently the eighth set out of all his old weapons.

X felt a terrible feeling of dread as his vision began to glow and static began flooding his vision. The next thing he saw was that the bird next to him had begun morphing into a creature composed of several animal parts.

The last thing X saw was a chaotic explosion of colors, and he screamed.

Princess Celestia was working in the throne room when she could've sworn she'd heard a rainbow explosion coming from the middle of Canterlot.

"Luna! Come quick! I heard a rainbow explosion coming from the middle of Canterlot!"

Instantly, Luna teleported into the throne room next to her sister. "What? Where?!" Luna cried.

"Oh, wait a minute. It's the last Friday of the month. Dischord always throws rainbow explosions over Canterlot on these days."

"Ahh, I see, sister. By the way, how did you hear the fact that the explosion was rainbow?"

The conversation was cut off by six very distraught mares bolting into the throne room.

"Princess! I saw a rainbow-colored explosion coming from Canterlot!" Twilight cried!

"Do not fret, my student, for it is the last Friday of the month."

"Oh. Okay then!" Twilight chirped.

"Wait, hold on a minute. I'm not getting this." Rainbow Dash said.

"Discord likes to throw rainbow explosions on the last Friday of every month." Fluttershy explained.

"Um...okay then. Why are we letting him do this again?"

"Well, it's very important to let Discord relieve some of his pent up chaos. Even if we don't want him going around causing chaos everywhere, it's still important to let him release his chaos from time to time. Besides, that rainbow-sounding explosion won't cause any harm anyways." Celestia said.

"So, sister. You still haven't told me how you heard the fact that the explosion was rainbow-colored."

"Hearing colors?!" Pinkie screamed. "I can do that! It's all about the way photons move in certain wavelengths and how you have to bend your eardrums at a certain angle to match the wavelength! It's very complicated..."

"What? Where am I?" X looked around and saw that he was inside his own system, outside the firewall. Right next to him was the strange creature made up of several animal parts.

"How did you get in here? And more importantly, who are you?"

"I am Discord, spirit of chaos. I just wanted to... have a little fun. But my, what a strange mind you have." Discord looked around, and only saw a lot of blue in the immediate area, with the occasional stream of data flowing in and out of the nigh-impenetrable firewall that led into X's systems. "So, you can resist mind probing, eh? Watch as I...huh?"

Discord tried to phase through the firewall, to no effect.

"What is this thing made of?!" Discord complained as he kicked at the firewall. The wall beeped and produced a message.

LOGIN
USER:
PASS:
DISCONNECT

"What's this?" Discord asked as a virtual keyboard popped up in front of him. He poked at the buttons.

"I don't think..." X started to say.

"Password?! What is this password you speak of?" Discord cried as he continued to mash the virtual keys.

"You really shouldn't..."

X watched as Discord was quite literally booted out of the system from too many bad password attempts. "Well then." X sighed. He stepped through the firewall and into his internal systems. He decided to look outside with his physical eyes.

"WOAH!"

X bolted upright into a sitting position. Apparently his body had been laying down on the...cloud? Once again, X found himself next to Discord, spirit of chaos.

"Ouch...that gave me quite the headache." Discord moaned. "Just what are you?"

"I am...a reploid. A robot is fine too. It doesn't really matter anymore, anyways. I guess you brought me here?" X motioned to the strange surroundings, with the both of them standing on a cloud, and looking farther ahead, were a few clouds spaced randomly among the sky. Strangely, when X looked down, he could see nothing but wide open space. Looking up resulted in the same thing, just more open space.

"This is my own little dimension. Nothing but clouds. Nothing more, nothing less. It's very good for...just thinking." Discord looked at X intently. "I sense a multitude of powers within you, most of which...are not yours. However, I can see that you can't use them, not because they are sealed, but simply because they were forgotten. Being the spirit of chaos, I can easily unlock those past powers for you."

X eyed Discord suspiciously. "No, thank you. Too much power has a tendency of corrupting the ones who wield it."

"But you've kept some powers longer than others, have you not?"

X remembered the time where he had to fight Zero during the fifth Maverick War, and he had used weapons from the forth war against him.

"And do you not summon up those lost powers in dire times of need? I can feel the power... an infinite amount of potential inside you. Like you could accomplish anything." Discord continued.

"I don't need it here, and I doubt I'll need it anytime soon."

"Well, if you say so. The offer will still be standing if you ever bump into me again." Discord shrugged.

X looked around. "So, how do I go back to Canterlot?"

Discord snapped his fingers. "I've been trying to teleport you back with my magic, but it's not working! Magic doesn't seem to be affecting you in the normal way that it should. I tried casting a cloud-walking spell on you but it simply did not work on you! Right now the only reason you're still here is because physics here abide by my rules. How... disorderly your body handles magic. It's like your body wants nothing to do with mana or something! X raised his eyebrow questioningly at Discord, and he continued, "So you'll have to take the manual way out. It's that-a-way." Discord pointed straight down, off the cloud and into the blue abyss below.

"You want me to what?!"

"Don't worry, physics don't work the same here. Ta-ta!" Discord snapped his fingers again, sending a blast of chocolate milk at X's face. X stumbled backwards and fell straight off the cloud.

"Goodbye, X! I'm certain we'll meet again!" Discord shouted down at X, and waved.

As X fell, he felt strangely calm, yet apprehensive about the future. One thing he knew was very certain, this won't be the last time he'll see Discord.

"X! X, you there?"

"Uggghh..."

X dragged himself off the park bench and looked at where the voice was coming from. It was Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, hey there Pinkie." X wiped his face off. It smelled like chocolate milk.

"What?! Did you have chocolate milk without me?!" Pinkie sternly asked.

"Um...a new friend offered me some chocolate milk, so I accepted it." X tried to explain.

"Ooh! New friends? New friends are always fun!" Pinkie beamed. "You should introduce your new friend later!"

"You know, I have a strange feeling that you might already know him. But that's just me." X looked at Pinkie. "Would you like to get some chocolate milk at the castle later?"

"Ooh sure!" Pinkie Pie and X began bouncing back to the castle.

"I think I might know a few recipes for chocolate milk. I don't remember where they came from or why they're in my system, but it's been there as long as I can remember..."

Armored

It was after dinner in the palace that X decided to go outside the palace for a walk. After all, X never had much time to go out for walks when he was active back at Earth. It was much too dangerous to be going on leisurely strolls when there were Mavericks roaming outside the 'safe-zones' surrounding anyplace with a substantial population, whether that population was human or Reploid. Besides, there was the strange, pulsing light that Luna had told him about. It seemed to come from the hills beyond the castle, and despite being highly visible, nopony had been able to reliably pinpoint its location. "It seemed to move somewhere else when I got near," one Night Guard had told Luna.

Fluttershy had insisted on coming along with X. "I'm not going to let you get lost again, X." she said with a stern voice.

"But the castle is huge, and in plain sight! You could see it from miles away!"

Of course, when Fluttershy told everypony that she and X were heading out, Rainbow Dash insisted on coming along, and naturally the whole group would tag along as well.

"Besides, if Flutters is going on an adventure, why the hay would I stay behind? I like my nightly flights anyways." Rainbow Dash said.

And so the Mane Six and X (plus Spike) went off on an adventure to the Canterlot backhills.

"Be careful, my ponies. No one has any idea what that light could be. Even though nothing bad has come out of it, it would be wise to be careful, and to also carry a light source." Luna advised before the Mane Six and X (plus Spike) left the castle.

"No worries, Princess! Me and Rarity can use our light-casting spell!" Twilight replied as the group walked (or flew) towards the hills.

"Wow, it's really dark here..." Applejack said as everypony struggled to navigate through a dense section of forest in the dark.

"And cold..." Rarity complained.

"Why isn't my magic working?! The mana seems to be inert here!" Twilight shouted in exasperation as her horn shot a few rays of light ahead before fizzling out. "What about you, Rarity?"

"Oh dear, it seems my magic refuses to work here either!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Don't worry! I brought a lantern with me!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pulled a lantern out of her inventory.

"What in tarnation...?! Where'd you pull that lantern out of, Pinkie?"

"Out of my inventory menu, silly." Pinkie replied to Applejack. "Now, does anypony have something I can light this thing with?"

Everyone facehoofed.

"Don't worry, everyone. I can use this..." X activated his X-buster and unused solar energy began flowing out of it, illuminating the surrounding area with a warm, golden glow. "I can see in the dark, but I forgot that you ponies probably can't."

Fluttershy's eyes widened at the sight of the X-buster, remembering that it was the weapon that X had used to knock down the dragon. It had fired a ferocious blast of compressed solar energy before, but now it was giving off what could only be described as gentle beams of sunlight.

"Oh my, that's actually quite warm." Fluttershy said as the X-buster gave off a significant amount of heat, acting as a heater for the ponies as they continued walking in the cold, night air.

"Hey guys, what's that?" Rainbow shouted as she pointed at a glowing area deeper in the forest.

"I think that's our target, everyone! Let's go!" Twilight shouted as everyone raced toward the glowing light.

"What the hay?! I could've sworn it was right here!" Rainbow shouted. Indeed, there was no light coming from where Rainbow had pointed at earlier, even though everyone had been walking straight at it. The light seemed to not get closer no matter how hard they ran at it.

Suddenly, X had a sudden revelation. "Everyone, stop chasing it."

"What? Why?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Don't question it right now. Just let me walk there. Alone. And don't look at it either!"

The ponies silently obeyed and turned the other way while X approached the light by himself.

As he got closer, he found that it was getting increasingly harder to move, until finally, he was frozen in place as the light subsided and a capsule erupted out of the ground.

"X. So you've broken through the barrier and reached this desolate place." Doctor Light's hologram said.

"Can they see?" X motioned at the ponies still looking the other way.

"Oh! So you've brought friends with you this time. They shall always be welcome here."

The ponies approached the capsule after some encouragement from X, and their apprehension disappeared after they saw who it was.

"You're the old guy in Fluttershy's shed!" Pinkie pointed out.

Doctor Light chuckled. "Aye, I am. However, I hide other capsules like these throughout the world wherever X might be. They contain powerful upgrade parts, and they must be well hidden, for I cannot imagine what would happen if this technology fell into the wrong hands."

"Just how do you do this, Doctor? You've even followed me across whole universes."

"That's a trade secret, X."

"Alright, then. What do you have for me?"

"I don't know? What kind of ponies do you like the most?"

"What do you mean? Do you mean what race?"

"I suppose that's what I mean, if that's what you think."

"Hmm... I don't know then. I think most ponies are very nice. Isn't that right, Fluttershy?"

"Eeep! I... you're right, I suppose."

"Well, you had better choose a race then, X."

"Well, I can't exactly choose one race as my favorite and offend the other two, Doctor."

"Well then, I'll help you. It was Fluttershy who found you first, right? By that logic, you would choose pegasi as the best race."

"I don't think..."

"Pegasi can fly! But unicorns can use magic, and earth ponies can grow plants. Decisions, decisions..."

"Err..."

"I only kid, X! I wouldn't have you answer a question like that, not in front of those ponies." He pointed at the six ponies, who looked rather bewildered by this strange conversation.

"I present you with the Pegasus foot parts! These foot parts will allow you to dash in any direction, as well as making you run faster and jump higher under normal circumstances. I've also enhanced them to allow cloudwalking, as well as boosting your movement speed greatly while traveling on a cloud. Enter the capsule, X."

X complied, and hopped into the capsule. The capsule closed shut, and began uploading armor data into X's system, as beams of light began surrounding him. Finally, a bolt of energy struck the top of the capsule as the Pegasus foot parts materialized on X's feet, and the capsule opened. X examined his new feet. They were more streamlined than his original feet, and were colored a very light blue. X hopped out, immediately feeling the lightness of his new feet, and dashed diagonally upwards, leaving a trail of magically formed feathers that faded away quickly. He then landed on the ground, noiselessly.

When X turned around, the capsule was gone.

Author's Note

This was meant to be a short chapter on purpose. In the future, armor upgrades will most likely be integrated into the main storyline instead of being split into a separate section, but I decided that X's first armor piece deserves its own section.

There will be side stories, with their own chapters, appearing alongside the main story (side stories will be clearly marked). Don't expect them to tie with the main story at all, or expect them to even make any sense whatsoever.

Knowlegde of the Universe and All of Spacetime

"Good morning, Princess."

"X! I didn't think you would be up so early."

X stepped past the guards and walked into the throne room as Celestia put finishing touches on her sunrise, her horn glowing a bright golden color. He quickly made his way to the window Celestia was at, and let the sun shine on him.

"Just needed some morning sun, Princess. I hope you don't mind me using your sunlight."

"Oh, don't worry about it. It may be "my" sun, but it's my duty to provide sunlight to every living thing in Equestria."

"Well, I hope Luna doesn't mind me using her moonlight."

"You use moonlight too? What for?"

"Recharging special weapons. See?" X activated the only weapon he had, which was Fluttershy's talent. His armor quickly changed color to reflect the active weapon, and X (unwittingly) made eye contact with Celestia.

Their stares were quickly locked together.

After a few seconds of tense silence, X quickly switched off his weapon and chuckled nervously. "Oops."

"Well, that was...interesting." Celestia said. "Anyways, you remember what is going to happen later today, right?"

X's eyes widened. "I had almost forgot."

"Well, I do hope you're ready." Celestia eyed X over.

I must judge this outworlder for myself. He seems to be a kind soul, but I prefer to see his combat ability. If what he claims about his past world is true...then Shining Armor might have met his match.

"Nice boots by the way. I haven't seen them before." She looked at X's feet. "The color doesn't really match with the rest of you, however."

"The boots are only part of a set, Princess. They give me the speed and agility of a Pegasus." X quickly unequipped the foot parts, not wanting anyone else to question where he got them, and the parts quickly faded away.

"Really?" Celestia gave X a questioning look. "Where did you get them?"

"The light in the backhills. My creator had left a capsule where the light was. He has a tendency to hide parts in the strangest places." X mused. "Sometimes I wonder how he finds materials to make these things. I supposed I shouldn't be surprised if I ever find one of his capsules on a cloud or something."

No, really, I wouldn't be surprised if I found a capsule sitting on top of a cloud.

"Good morning, Princess!"

X and Celestia looked up to see six mares approaching them.

"Oh, good morning to you too, X! We didn't expect you to be up so early." Rarity said.

"I just needed my morning sun, that's all. I suppose you're going to eat breakfast now?"

"We are. Shall we go, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"Let us go then. Will you join us, X?"

"I suppose I shall, Princess. Let's go."

At the table, we have the Mane Six, Celestia, and X, as well as Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.

"Wow! This is great!"

"Dash, dear, you really must refrain from stuffing your face..." Rarity said as Rainbow Dash stuffer her face with various pony breakfast foods.

"But ish so gudd!"

Rarity facehoofed as Pinkie produced a cupcake out of nowhere and offered it to X. "Do you want a cupcake, X?"

"What the...?" X began, as Twilight said, "Pinkie, I don't think cupcakes are a part of a balanced breakfa-"

"What nonsense! He's a robot, so he doesn't have to worry! Right, X?"

"Err...I suppose you're right." X said as he took the cupcake and took a bite.

X's eyes snapped wide open.

What the...!

"Is something wrong, X?" Pinkie asked, worried. The other five ponies and Celestia also looked at him.

"Better not have a stomach ache, X. I've been practicing my shield spell just for you." Shining said it with a frown on his face, but his eyes were smiling.

"No! No, no. It's a great cupcake, Pinkie." X said, and the ponies resumed their meal. X quickly consumed the rest of the cupcake, and when nopony was paying him any attention, he turned to Pinkie and asked," Do you have another cupcake?"

"Of course I do!" She pulled a cupcake out of her inventory and handed it to X. "Are you going to eat it?

"No, not yet. I'm saving it. You remember that I'm to fight Shining Armor, right?" X motioned subtly at Shining Armor.

"Ooh, right! Where are you gonna put your cupcake?"

X frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I know! If I give you my powers, you'll see the truth and the meaning of the universe and everything in it!"

"What?"

"Consider it a gift for being one of my bestest friends! Pinkie grabbed X's hands and he began to glow a bright pink. He felt a powerful sense of joy and laughter flow into his very being, and all the strange knowledge that Pinkie Pie had been saving up for who knows how long.

"What in tarnation..." Applejack stared. X's armor was a shade of light pink, his helmet a slightly darker pink, and his eyes became a shade of light cerulean.

Twilight almost spit out her hay and oats. "Pinkie! What have you done?!"

"I gave him the knowledge of the universe and all of spacetime." Pinkie said seriously. "Now he has the potential to open his own bakery!"

"Hahahaha! Oh my, I think the world looks a bit different now." X looked disoriented as he clutched his head with one hand and waved his other hand wildly. "Twitch-a-twitch-twitch!" he shouted.

"Everypony, look out!" Pinkie cried.

All the ponies took cover as a brown package smashed through the window and flew across the dining room, then landed next to Pinkie.

A shout of, "Oops, my bad!" could be heard from outside the window as a grey pegasus flew off.

Pinkie tore open the package. "Oh, it's that cookbook I ordered." Pinkie scratched her head. "Wonder how they found me here."

"Guards!" Celestia shouted.

Two guards quickly made their way over to Celestia and asked, "What is it, princess?"

"Get somepony to fix that window later, after we're done eating. Tell them to use stronger glass this time."

"Yes, princess." the guards replied and quickly left to room. When they left, X could still hear "That's the third time this month!" coming from one of the guards.

"So, is everyone done with breakfast now? I think the crowds and the nobles are showing up." Celestia said.

"A crowd?!" X cried in bewilderment as he finally had enough sense to unequip Pinkie's talent. The partying in his head and nonstop sugar rush had gotten a bit too excessive.

"Why is there a crowd?!" X cried. "No one told me this would be public!"

"Well...Shining Armor is a prince, you know. Prince of the Crystal Empire. Dueling a prince isn't anything to scoff at." Fluttershy told X. "Now run along now. Don't keep them waiting." Fluttershy gently pushed X towards the courtyard. "We'll be watching next to the princesses!" she softly shouted as X walked away.

Slowly, X made his way towards the center of the courtyard. He could see Shining Armor waiting for him, clad in shining armor, as well a crowd of ponies behind a circle of unicorn guards. From a nearby balcony, his friends as well as the three princesses were watching. As soon as X stepped into what he thought was the battle zone, the guards set up a large shield spell closing the two duelists inside the ring, and prevented anything from getting in or out, to avoid damaging anything outside the arena or hurting any other ponies.

X stepped forward and faced Shining Armor.

"So...why am I doing this again?"

"To prove your worth as an outsider, and to prove that you'll be a fine member of the Royal Guard. To be completely honest with you, I still can't believe that you could have driven a dragon out of Ponyville by yourself. If you can win, however, that's a completely different story."

"Very well then. If that's what it takes for me to be able to settle down for a change...I'll accept your challenge."

Shining Armor's horn glowed, and a sword and shield materialized next to him, floating in his magical grasp. X pulled out the hilt of the Z-Saber from the side of his leg and activated it, the glowing triangular blade drawing a small gasp from the crowd.

X quickly examined his opponent's weapon. It was a white, ornate sword, but X wasn't sure if he could compare Equestrian weaponry to human weapons, especially since humans had abandoned using metal swords long before he himself had existed. X knew of no metal that was white by its own accord, at least not any Earthen metals.

Well, I won't be the one to know how sharp that thing is.

"Are you sure he'll really be alright?" Rarity asked. "Shining Armor is a very skilled fighter, I would think."

"Well, if X took down a dragon, I would think that he's good at fighting too." Rainbow retorted.

"But still...I would think that Shining Armor is a lot more intelligent than a brutish dragon."

"My brother is very intelligent!"
"My husband is very intellegent!"

Twilight and Cadence looked at each other.

"Well, most of the time."

DUEL: Maximum Improbable

A bright red WARNING ran through his vision as he recognized Shining Armor as an enemy.

The crowd shouted as Shining Armor flung his sword at X with his magic, but X's superior reaction speed allowed him to parry the sword with his own saber. But while X was busy dealing with the flying sword, Shining slammed into X from the side in an attempt to knock him off balance.

X didn't so much as budge, and swiftly countered with a quick punch to Shining's side, forcing him to take a few steps backward. Judging from X's movements, he assumed that X had pulled that punch.

"Don't go easy on me, 'cause I sure as hell won't be going easy on you!" he cried as he attempted to slam his shield into X.

X swung his arm to block the shield. He's right. If I hold back, this fight won't go anywhere! No more holding back!

X lunged at Shining Armor and swung his fist at him, followed by a kick, both of which were blocked by his shield.

"Why are you not using your sword, X? You're holding it, but you're not using it!" Shining shouted as he attempted to cut X down.

"I'm afraid that if I do, something very regrettable and entirely preventable would happen!" X shouted back as he parried Shining's sword yet again.

"Prove it then!"

"Maybe later!" X shouted as he kicked Shining Armor in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Shining countered by slashing wildly at X, who couldn't parry all the hits since his specialty was not saber combat, and managed to slash him across the chest.

"Ack!" X clutched his chest. The cut left a long mark across his chest, although it wasn't anything auto-repair couldn't handle. "Alright, that's it!" X shouted as he fired a shockwave with the Z-Saber, sending a green wave of energy flying straight at Shining Armor. He dodged, and the shockwave continued to fly straight at the barrier along the arena. The guards strained to keep the green wave of energy from getting outside, and by the time it dissipated, it left a huge slash mark along the barrier. The audience cringed, slightly afraid of what might happen if the barrier broke.

"My goodness, I didn't think that he was this strong." Luna commented

"You haven't seen everything yet, sister. He has yet to use his own, special ability..."

X charged his saber and slammed it down on the ground, causing the ground to shake and throwing Shining Armor off balance. Shining quickly backed off into a defensive stance.

He certainly seems strong enough, but the way he attacks with his saber tells me that he isn't too skilled with it. I just need to find a weak point...

That weak point came soon enough, as X raised his saber to deliver a shockwave, Shining fired a carefully aimed magic missile at X's hand, making him drop the weapon. The saber landed on the ground a few feet away, automatically retracting as it left X's hand.

"What are you going to do now?" Shining smirked as he machine-gunned magic bolts at X.

X ran around, attempting to dodge the barrage of magic that threatened to hit him. Suddenly, Shining ran up to him and fired a magic bolt into X's chest, sending him flying backwards. Fortunately for X, his auto balancer did its job and X was able to cling onto the magic barrier and slide to the ground instead of crash landing.

This battle was beginning to remind him of fighting mavericks, and all of a sudden, X was determined to win.

Shining charged with his sword drawn, intending to impale X, but X's dash was much faster than most ponies, and he slammed his fist into Shining's chestpiece, sending him flying backwards until he hit the barrier.

Much to X's surprise, that blow didn't discourage him, but got him pumped up even more. "It's been too long since I've had a real fight. The last time was when I had to fight King Sombra! Bring it on!" Shining Armor disregarded the huge crack on his armor and fired a charged bolt straight at X, who couldn't dodge since he had just dashed. It slammed hard into X, but the bolt did not hurt as much as he had expected it to be. X only stumbled a few steps backwards.

X refused to hold back any longer. He morphed his left arm into the X-Buster and fired a powerful charge shot, one he had been holding since the start of the battle. All the ponies gasped at the sudden shot, and Shining certainly did not expect X to make a long-range attack. He tried to block the powerful solar shot with his shield, but it was far too weak to withstand a fully charged shot. Shining stood his ground for a few seconds before he was forced to dive sideways as the blast consumed his shield, literally melting it and sending molten metal flying everywhere.

Everypony present gasped when X's charge shot destroyed Shining Armor's shield.

"Wha- he destroyed that shield!. A pure unicornium shield. No mere pony can so easily break, much less melt a shield crafted from pure unicornium, sister!"

Celestia narrowed her eyes. She had not expected his attacks to be so strong.

Cadence was looking on nervously. "Oh, this is a bit too much for me to bear. I don't want to see either of them hurt!"

"I assure you, Shining will be alright, for X has a powerful force of kindness I can feel from him." Celestia said.

X fired his uncharged shots rapidly at Shining, who ducked and leaped around them, and countered with his own magic. He was beginning to grasp just how powerful X really was once he was convinced to go all out. X dashed at Shining, but this time, he was ready. He sidestepped the dash and cut X's arm with his sword. As X flinched, he prepared to strike a decisive blow, but suddenly he could not move.

X, now yellow and pink, stared at him, and he found himself frozen in place by X's piercing gaze. He dropped his sword, and X slowly stepped forward, not breaking eye contact, and slowly raised his buster.

Weapon energy for Fluttershy doesn't last very long!

X suddenly looked down and fired his buster at the sword, before leaping backwards and reverting to his normal form. "Let's see you try to cut me again."

Shining quickly regained his composure and raised his sword with his magic, but realized he could not swing it. Three pink butterflies, identical to Fluttershy's cutie mark, were latched onto Shining Armor's sword, and were making the sword resist all attempts to strike with it. He could move the sword, he could swing it around, but he could not attack anything with the sword, no matter how hard he tried.

While Shining struggled with his sword, X had picked up his Z-Saber from the ground and activated it. He dashed at him, and when he spun around, X tore his sword out of his magical grasp and shattered it with the Z-Saber.

"Oh...my" Fluttershy stammered.

This was the second time X had used Fluttershy's talent in combat, and the first time X had actively used the X-Buster with it.

"So it seems that your talent allows X to restrain others from attacking. Very fitting." Celestia commented.

Twilight looked nervously at Pinkie Pie.

X felt slightly fatigued from dragging this battle on for too long. He hadn't noticed that the magical barrier was partially blocking sunlight from getting in, and it was beginning to take a toll on him.

I need more energy! But wait, I have Pinkie's cupcake! Where did she leave it again? My inventory?

How in the world do I open that?!

X dodged another magic bolt from Shining Armor. He was surprised that he hadn't given up yet. Well he's the Captain of the Royal Guard, so that makes sense.

Wait a minute. Sugar rush!

X was slightly hesitant, but he did it anyways.

Shining prepared to throw another magic bolt when a bright flash of pink light cut him off. Suddenly, X rushed in front of him with impossible speed and threw a pile of confetti on him.

Party. Party. Party. Wait, no! Now isn't the time to party!

Of course it is, silly! It's always party time!

Pinkie! What are you doing in my head?

To teach you how to play the game, silly! Press the start button first!

What start but- you mean this?

X pressed a start button that had randomly appeared after using Pinkie's talent.

Suddenly, everything was still.

Good job! You paused the game! Now find the inventory option in the menu and press that!

X navigated through the start menu and selected his inventory, where X saw his energy and weapon gauges, as well as his armor parts. To the right, the screen showed that he had one cupcake in his possession.

Use it!

Everything began moving again as a cupcake appeared in X's hand. Everypony looked bewildered as he ate the cupcake in one big gulp, and he felt his energy gauge completely refill.

Gee, thanks, Pinkie! You're a great friend, you know that?

That's what friends are for! *boingboingboingboingboing*

X approached Shining Armor and fired a party at him. Instantly the space around Shining was filled with various party items, and he looked around, bewildered.

"You know what? I give up. I yield to you, X! I just...can't take this partying anymore?" Shining Armor looked around looking slightly confused. "What was I doing? Was I partying this whole time? Come on, everypony! Let's party!" he hollered. The guards let the barrier down as everypony, commoners and nobles, began dancing and helping themselves to the party food that X had fired.

The ponies on the balcony looked extremely confused.

"He said he didn't like violence," Luna said, "but I never thought it would come down to this!"

X waved and hollered, "I won, Pinkie! Are you proud of me yet?"

Pinkie waved back, and cried, "That was a beautiful party, X! I think I might start crying!" A single tear fell from Pinkie's eyes.

As the ponies on the balcony went down to join the impromptu party, X said to Shining Armor, "Hey, so do I get your talent now? I did win..."

Author's Note

Sorry, I was feeling a bit...strange when I wrote this.

To Make A Point

The last Friday of the month...

X stood at his post outside the throne room, his left forearm morphed into the X-Buster, his right hand holding the hilt of the Z-Saber, ready for anything that could happen. Next to him was a white unicorn clad in the armor of a Royal Guard, and wielding a spear and shield.

The door to the throne room opened, and Princess Celestia stepped out. She looked at X and the unicorn and gave them a small nod before leaving to do whatever it was that needed to be done. When she had gone, X and the unicorn looked at each other and nodded. X disarmed his X-Buster and slid the Z-Saber back into its place on the side of X's left leg. The unicorn levitated her spear and shield and sheathed them on her back. The two of them began walking off into the hallway as two other ponies immediately shifted next to the door leading into the throne room.

"So...you're my new partner now. Are you from around here?" the unicorn asked.

X looked at her. "Do I look like I'm from around here?"

The unicorn looked back. "I guess not."

With that, the unicorn quickly gave up on asking this strange creature about his helmet, and pretty much every other question she would have liked to ask, which were along the lines of why he didn't wear Royal Guard armor, why his...hand? Why his hand transformed into a cylindrical object every time he was on duty, why he was blue, and a million other things.

Soon they had arrived at the guards' barracks, where the unicorn took off her weapon and armor, and placed them down into a storage compartment. As soon as her armor came off, her coat became cream-colored.

X had wandered off to a nearby desk and picked up some paper and a pen. He sat down and began writing.

The unicorn noticed and went next to him and sat down. "Watcha doing?"

"Nothing much. Just writing back to some friends in Ponyville." After he was placed into the Royal Guard with Shining Armor's approval, his friends had returned to Ponyville, and he had stayed behind in Canterlot.

"Alright then. I'll just go now so I won't-"

"All done!"

The unicorn stared wide-eyed at the letter that X had composed in a matter of seconds.

Dear Fluttershy,

I'm doing quite well here, don't you worry. I'm getting used to this work, but it isn't too bad. I have to stand for several hours a day without moving, but that's not a problem since my legs can't get sore. Haha! And yes, I'm trying to make some friends, too. I guess the ponies here just need some time to get used to me, I can totally understand that. Maybe you should get out more often and meet new people. It's not good to hide in your cottage all the time.

-X

Don't forget to tell the animals I said hi!

X sat patiently as the unicorn looked at his letter, wide-eyed. After a few moments, X said, "It's not very nice to read others personal letters."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she stammered. "I'm sorry...er..."

"X."

"I'm sorry, X. I didn't mean to do that! But your handwriting is so pretty!" She waved his letter in the air. It looked like it had been written in Times New Roman, 12 point font, single spaced.

"Is that so?" He picked up another sheet of paper and wrote in perfectly measured Ariel font,

What is your name?

She looked surprised at this new handwriting, then picked up the paper and wrote,

Bliss Windfall.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Windfall."

"No need for formalities. Just call me Bliss."

"Nice to meet you...partner." X stuck out his hand.

Celestia's ears perked up as she thought she heard an explosion coming from Ponyville's general direction. Almost immediately a guard ran up to Celestia with a report.

"Princess, there's been an explosion in Ponyville!"

Celestia checked her calendar. "Hmm...today is the last Friday of the month. Does that ring a bell?"

The guard's face brightened as the information sank into him. "That's right. I had almost forgotten. Well if that's the case, then I shall be off, Princess."

Celestia smiled as the guard went back to whatever he had been guarding. She just hoped that the explosion hadn't woken her sister.

Twilight Sparkle was busy cleaning the library alongside Spike. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Spike! Could you go answer the door!"

"Coming!"

Spike opened the door, and Discord stepped in, his eyes glowing a strange shade of green.

"Why hello there, Spike! How do you do today?"

"I'm doing fine, Discord." The strange eyes made Spike feel uneasy. "Your eyes look a bit strange today."

"Oh? Maybe...I just decided to have a little bit of change for today." he replied as he sidestepped Spike and entered the library.

"Hello there. Are you Twilight Sparkle, by any chance?"

"Discord! Did you need anyt-" her eyes suddenly widened in fear at his ominous green eyes.

"So." He snapped his fingers a few times. "You're the leader, aren't you? If this spirit's memory is correct...I'll take you first, and then the others!" His hand reached for Twilight.

"You're...not...Discord..." she whimpered.

Suddenly, Spike ran into the library so see what was going on. "Discord! What do you think you're doing?!"

"No, Spike! This isn't Discord! Run! Go get help!"

"So this is her pet lizard, eh? Well, I suppose I should take you too."

Discord levitated them both up and tossed them into an ominous looking portal.

"Now, which one next...?

"Princess Celestia!" The nervous guard from earlier ran up to the princess.

"Hmm?" Princess Celestia was sitting down, sipping her daily afternoon tea.

"A train that was heading into Ponyville crashed! Apparently a magical barrier is surrounding the town and is cutting off all attempts to enter!"

"What?!" Celestia spit out her tea.

"Explain the situation!" she commanded.

The guard looked around nervously. "I can't believe this...but the Element Bearers, they've taken control of Ponyville, and divided it into six areas. I would assume that each of them would control one-sixth of Ponyville."

Suddenly, a loud CRASH rang out from the hallway outside and blew a large hole in the wall. The guard instinctively ducked down and raised his shield, as Celestia raised a barrier spell around the guard and herself. As the smoke cleared, some pony like forms stepped forward. They were similar to ponies in shape, but they appeared to have metallic bodies. Their eye optics glowed a deep shade of red.

They advanced on Celestia and the guard. The guard struck at an earth pony with his spear, but it proved useless as it bounced off its hard, robotic coat. The earth pony counterattacked with a powerful weighted stomp, throwing the guard off balance as a pegasus slammed into him with its metallic wings, throwing him into the wall behind him. The guard tried to get up, then stopped as he caught sight of a unicorn aiming its horn at him. His eyes stared with dread.

The shot never made it. Celestia herself had fired a powerful solar shot at the unicorn, stunning it, and threw it at the pegasus with her magic, creating yet another hole in the wall. Celestia then bucked the earth pony, sending it sliding across the ground.

The ruckus had awakened Princess Luna from her slumber, and she had angrily torn through scattered forces of these strange robot ponies, helping the guards fight the ponies when she could, but ultimately her goal was to reach Celestia as soon as possible.

Luna's eyes went wide as she entered Celestia's chamber. She saw the injured guard, and Celestia fighting three of those ponies. With a roar, she threw herself into the battle. Her horn fired off powerful shots of magic, although most of them missed because the metal ponies were incredibly agile.

Celestia ran over to the fallen guard and quickly cast a powerful healing spell on him to reduce his injuries. As she did so, her eyes gave off a cold stare as she watched Luna attempt to fend off the three attackers. Luna finally got her break when the pegasus attempted to run into her at high speeds. Instead of dodging like it expected Luna to do, she instead blasted it with her voice.

"BEGONE, VILE SCUM!"

The attacking pegasus stopped dead in its tracks, and Luna slammed its head into the floor with her incredible strength. The other two ponies were also stunned by her voice, and Luna wasted no time in delivering two precisely aimed bolts at their head. The shots connected, and they fell down on the ground. When Luna went over to look at those ponies, they suddenly got up and ran off. Luna did not pursue them; checking on her sister and the guard was more important. She did notice that as they ran, their bodies didn't have much of even a scratch on them. Luna was slightly disturbed by this. She went over to Celestia and said,

"This could be war, sister."

X and Bliss Windfall were spending their free time lounging around in the barracks, along with other guards that were off duty. Some were reading, some were playing board games, some were practicing their combat skills. And then there were some others that were catching up on much needed sleep.

X sat down on a nearby cushion, and ran maintenance on his systems. Although he didn't really need it since he hadn't gotten into combat mode much nowadays, it was a good habit.

AUTO REPAIR SYSTEM...PASS

OPTIC CAMERA...PASS

MOTOR FUNCTIONS...PASS

MEMORY SYSTEM...PASS

GYROSCOPIC STABILIZATION (FULL AUTO BALANCER)...PASS

ESCAPE UNIT...PASS

SUB-TANKS...0 READY (0% CHARGE)

SOLAR POWER UNIT...PASS

MICRO-FUSION REACTOR FUEL TANK...100% FULL

SOLAR BATTERY: 100%

ALL SYSTEMS: CODE GREEN

Oh dear, X thought. My Sub-Tanks seem to have been left behind in the old world.

X then ran maintenance on his combat systems. After all, being a guard meant that being combat-ready was a must.

Auto-Repair- Pass

VWS (Variable Weapons System)- Pass (2 weapons currently ready)

X-Buster (Mega Buster Mk17)- Ready

Energy- 100%

Armor Upgrades
Pegasus set- foot parts ready. This set is 25% complete.

End Combat System quick maintenance.

Looks good, X thought to himself.

"Hello?" X suddenly saw a hoof waving at his face.

"You've been staring at that wall for like, thirty minutes." Bliss said.

"Oh, sorry. I was making sure that I was in tip-top condition."

Bliss gave him an odd look. "Okay then. I can't wait till tomorrow!" she smiled. "Nothing ever happens on the last Friday of the month."

X laughed. "That's funny. Where I'm from, something always happens on the last Friday of the month."

Suddenly, a loud CRASH rang out from outside the barracks. X and the other guards ran outside to see what was going on. Everypony's eyes went wide as they saw strange, gray, metal ponies attacking randomly and causing utter chaos. All the guards ran at the ponies, including X, and attacked them. As X charged at a nearby earth pony that was attacking, it looked up and made eye contact with him. What he saw made his coolant run cold.

Red, glowing eyes. X staggered backwards in a terrible mix of fear and anger.

No..! It can't be!

"You...Maverick!"

Meanwhile, the guards were being driven back by the coming onslaught of the robots, the attacks of the guards proving to be useless. There was no way a simple spear could punch through a robotic chassis.

"X, help!" X snapped out of his stupor as some guards that had learned his name cried out for help. They had gotten themselves surrounded, with the robots quickly closing in. X dashed at the Maverick ponies and knocked them out of formation, scattering them. He would retire those bots, but defending his team was more important.

"Everypony, get behind me!" X waved his arms, and the guards did not hesitate as they all gathered tightly behind him. X armed his X-Buster as the Maverick ponies began getting into formation. A pegasus flew at X, but he caught it and slammed it into the ground, before firing a shot down into its body. The other guards looked aghast, but X ignored them and continued his Maverick hunting onslaught. He gathered solar energy and aimed a fully charged shot at the Maverick crowd, the energy blast tearing through the ponies. The shot kept traveling until it hit the opposite wall, where it smashed it open and revealed even more Mavericks behind it.

"Listen up, team!" X's experience as a commander was beginning to kick in. "We're going to make our way to the Princesses! Rule number one! Don't split up from the group! Rule number two! Don't engage the Maverick bots! I'll handle them. Rule number three! Watch each others backs! Rule number four!" X looked at his squad.

"Don't die."

X and his squad marched boldly into the castle, X taking out any Maverick bots that might be in the way, and his pony squad keeping an eye out for any that were hiding or were missed. They made their way to the throne room, where he hoped the Princesses would be. It was empty, the walls mostly wrecked, and signs of a scuffle were everywhere.

"We're going to try the courtyard this time," X said to his pony squad, "and we will find where all these Maverick bots are coming from." X took a deep breath before marching off with the ponies in tow. They had no idea what a "Maverick bot" was, although they were getting quite the demonstration of what a Maverick could do.

After much fighting and buster shooting, they tore their way to the courtyard, where the two princesses faced Discord and the Element Bearers.

"What is the meaning of this, ordering an attack on the castle?!" Celestia shouted.

"I'm just waiting for an old friend to show up, Celestia. Just wai- oh, there he comes."

X approached Discord, and was shocked.

"You! I've seen you...no, that's not right. I've seen your body before, but your eyes, they've changed...Sigma. Tell me what you've done to Discord!"

"X! I've waited so long to be free! Do you know how long I've drifted out there in the open after the world was destroyed? Thanks to you, when you opened the space between worlds, I was able to jump from our own world to this one!"

X looked angrily. "So you'll try to destroy this world too."

"I won't be so easily foiled this time, X. I have them." Discord-Sigma motioned to the Harmony Bearers. "And I also have these." He snapped his fingers, and the Elements of Harmony appeared around him.

"No!" Celestia cried.

"Do you have what it takes to save this little world alone, without your friends, X? I- they will be waiting for you in Ponyville." With that, Discord-Sigma disappeared, along with the Element Bearers and their Elements of Harmony. Even the Maverick ponybots seemed to be disappearing.

X looked around at the damaged palace, and shook his head. "I won't let him get away with this." He turned around and looked at his pony squad, and gave them a sad smile. "I'll leave for Ponyville in two days. During that time I'll try to restore the palace, at least somewhat, then I'll go and fight Sigma." X turned around to the Princesses.

"I'll come with you!"

"What?" X turned around to see that Bliss Windfall had raised her hoof up in proclamation.

"I said, I'll come with you. What are friends for?"

"I'll come too!"

X turned to see that another one of his squad had raised his hoof, followed by another, and another, and another.

"My, my, X. You seem to have made quite a name for yourself." Luna smiled.

X turned to face his squad. "Get yourselves ready, team."

"We have a war to win."

Author's Note

X has unlocked: Pony Squad!
Their names and other details will come with the next chapter!

Interlude: Σ

"Hello? What's this?"

Discord was lounging on one of his clouds in his little realm of chaos when suddenly, a crack emerged in the fabric of space and time. The crack grew until the surrounding space finally shattered and a strange looking outline of a head appeared. It opened its mouth and leaned downward before unleashing a beam of energy onto the ground, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

"No!" Discord stood up and tried to attack the floating head with his magic, to no effect.

The head turned and looked at Discord.

"I think...you'll...do...nicely..."

For a brief moment, Celestia's ears perked up as she thought she heard somepony screaming.

"I must be hearing things again." she thought to herself as she rubbed her temples.