A Man and his Machine

Twilight ran up to her friends clutching the letter in her mouth. They all looked at her including ARMD who was somehow petting a squirrel siting on the back of his hand without crushing it.

"Oh, ARMD please stop petting the squirrel your scaring him." Fluttershy said softly as she hovered next to ARMD.

"Okay Fluttershy I put down squirrel." ARMD replied as he let the squirrel hop off his hand.

"Th- thank you." Fluttershy said quietly as she lowered herself to the ground.

"What's the letter say Twi. Applejack asked Twilight as she walked along side.

"Here I'll read it." Twilight anounced as she stopped and pulled out the letter.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I felt the travelers enter our realm with my magic and am happy to know that you were the first ones they met. I'm sorry this letter had to be so short but I had to take a recess from an important meeting to write this. I would like you to take Dark and ARMD to my castle in canterlot as fast as possible; there is a lot we need to talk about.

Princess Celestia

"A meeting? That rather sudden." Rarity commented as she walked over to view the letter herself.

"So were are we headed?" Dark asked.

"See that castle on the side of the mountain there?" Rainbow Dash  said flying behind him and pointing to the castle in the distance.

"That's quite a ways away. ARMD activate flight systems." Dark instructed ARMD.

ARMD:> User Input: Activate Flight systems.

ARMD:> Executing Flight Procedures.

ARMD:> Extending Aft Rocket Motors

"Wait. He can fly!?" Rainbow Dash said examining the rockets on his back.

"Affirmative." ARMD replied.

"Well she did sound pretty urgent so we should get there as fast as possible." Twilight recommended.

"I can ride on ARMD and it looks like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash can fly there but ARMD can only handle me. What about you then?" Dark asked rubbing his chin.

"I think I can teleport Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity but defiantly not all 6 of us." Twilight pondered as well.

"Well that settles it. Me ARMD Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will go by air and the rest of you can teleport your way there." Dark said as he entered 'Teleportation' into his wrist computer. With that Dark climbed onto ARMD's shoulder and the set off.

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Dark, and ARMD were minutes away from the outskirts of canterlot when Twilight and the rest of her friends completed the final teleport and appeared at the edge of the city.

"ARMD I know what your thinking... don't do it. Just don't." He said when he noticed his partner eyeing the ground pondering whether or not he could create an earthquake if he crashed into it from this height.

"I would ask but I'm not aloud to talk about certain things." ARMD retorted.

"Just land. Softly." Dark replied. ARMD descended to the ground making sure to fire his rockets to make for a soft landing. Dark hopped off as Rainbow Dash, who was assisting Fluttershy in her flying, landed. They joined up with Twilight and walked through the main gate past a set of extremely shocked and nervous looking guards hoping to Celestia that ARMD didn't try something. Twilight led them down side streets as to not attract to much attention; if that's even possible with a giant robot who's footsteps resemble the noise of a car accident. Eventualy they arrived at the castle where a stallion informed them they had to wait if they until the princess finished her meeting.

"An hour has passed since we arrived. Time for status update." ARMD informed Dark around fifteen minutes into their waiting.

"Wait. How are we supposed to do status updates... from another dimension?" Dark asked confused.

"With my interdimensional fax machine." ARMD replied gesturing to the large round blue light in his lower chest area.

Dark broke out into laughter. "We have the technology to travel between dimensions but we have to use a fax machine as communication. Oh that too good." - Dark stopped wiping a tear from his eye. - "Sorry here you go ARMD." He finished as he ejected the data stick from his wrist computer and handed it to ARMD who inserted it into the Interdimensional Fax Machine. The stick glowed a bright yellow than dissolved into nothing as it headed back to the URA.

"What was that?" Twilight asked having nothing better to be doing.

"That was all the information I gathered about Equestria so far and I just sent it back to the dimension I came from." Dark explained.

"So there are a bunch of ponies,... well 'people' I suppose, on the other side of the portal ARMD just created who are reading everything you wrote down." Twilight said.

"About sums it up." Dark concluded.

Larsin sat anxiously in the control room waiting to receive the first update from Dark. He was joined by about twenty other scientists and researchers waiting to decipher the importance of the information. The team included everything from zoologists to historians. An indicator flashed on his control panel indicating the ARMD unit was sending him something, so he engaged the automatic starting sequence for the portal array. Everyone in the control room was sitting on the edge of their seat as a small black data stick the size of an eraser clattered to the floor in the laboratory at the base of the portal array. A worker in a radiation shielding suit walked up and retrieved the stick after the portal closed; then he brought it up to the control room where everyone was so excited they might have cheered as the worker inserted it into the computer.

"Well, what's on it?" One of them asked breaking the silence.

"This is the personal notes of URA agent 1137, aka Dark, plus the video and audio feeds from the ARMD unit. Unfortunately it appears as if the jump crashed the ARMD unit's operating system and he didn't start recording until five-and-a-half minutes after the jump." Larsin explained as he started the footage from the ARMD unit. For the next hour the scientists watched intently looking away only briefly to study Dark's personal notes. At the end of the footage the room burst into conversation about everything from the biological composition of the world to the level of technology the ponies had achieved; which continued for the rest of the day.

"The princess will see you now." Jolted Dark awake. He looked around and saw the stallion standing next to him talking to Twilight.

"Very well. I know the way follow me everypony." Twilight informed her friends as she set off towards the castles' front entrance. They all followed Twilight through the maze of hallways and corridors; even ARMD managed to follow thank's to the castle's excessively large doors. Eventually they came to the throne room where Princess Celestia was waiting.

"Twilight Sparkle and your friends its a pleasure to see you again. And these must be the travelers." The princess said as everyone respectfully bowed; except ARMD who would fall on his face if he tried.

"Indeed. I have to say crossing through dimensions and consequently falling to the planet's surface from the upper atmosphere is quite the experience." Dark responded smiling.

"I must say I'm surprised you would still come knowing the damage it would cause." The princess continued as she got up from her throne and walked towards them.

"Pardon?" Dark asked dropping into a serious tone.

"For a people who have the knowledge and means to create artificial intelligence I would believe you would be aware of the repercussions of your travels." The princess responded reaching the bottom of the steps.

"Well actually this is the first time we tried something like this." Dark said, embarrassed, as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Then you are unaware of the void you created by coming here?" Celestia asked as she approached him.

"Void? As in a black hole?" Dark asked in response.

"That would be a fitting description. To the point; in five days the void will grow to engulf the entire planet and eventually the entire dimension." Celestia finished with anger in her voice.