Fluttershy awoke with a small yawn as she stretches her body, as the birds outside were in the midst of their morning chorus. Emerging from her bed, and then making it, the pegasus trotted to her bedroom window and looked out into her backyard. As the pegasus looked out into the yard she saw her newest friend, another unknown creature from beyond a mysterious portal, standing at its full quadrupedal height and looking down at the royal guard that was assigned to keep an eye on it. It’s been a few days since the pair have made themselves at home at Fluttershy’s cottage, and the mare was pretty happy to have new residences at her little home.
The guard was a pegasus mare named Soft Breeze, and surprisingly like Fluttershy, was just like her in some aspects. The mare was lean in build to where her armor looked more like it was just hanging on her body, her coat was a pale pink color while her mid-length mane and tail were bright sky blue with a few high lights of white. When the guardmare came to Fluttershy’s cottage and introduced herself, she was kind and polite, and seemed to be very respectable, and from what Fluttershy could see of the mare right now was that she was calm and patient.
“Good morning Miss. Breeze.” Fluttershy said after she opened her window and waved at the mare. The guard looked up and gave an equally happy smile and wave, even the creature that Pinkie called, Grapefruit, looked up at her…and waved its claw.
“Morning Fluttershy.” The guard pegasus said. “Did you sleep well?” Fluttershy nodded.
“How did you sleep Miss. Breeze? Was the guest room alright?”
“It was fine Fluttershy.” Soft Breeze said before looking back to the creature.
Fluttershy then made her way out of her room and began her usual morning routines. Once she has the pegasus made her way down to her lower floor, where all of her little animals were either awake, or just waking up and were looking for food. Approaching a hallway closet Fluttershy pulls out a bag of animal feed, some biscuits, and a few other foods that animals can eat. Flying around the cottage the pegasus began to pass out food to her many animals, both inside the cottage and outside it, and as she worked Soft Breeze accompanied her in passing out the food, like a good guest should do for their host.
When the pair made their way to the backyard where the more exotic animals live, Fluttershy and Breeze began to give each animal their food but as they did so, they kept looking over to where Grapefruit was. Which was currently with Harry, Fluttershy’s bear friend, and the bear was gently rolling Grapefruit around as it was curled up in a large ball. The odd little bug that Pinkie as had named, which was Buzzard because of its loud buzzing sounds, was flying closely by as it never strayed to far from its larger companion.
“Alright Harry I think that’s enough playing, time for breakfast.” Fluttershy said sweetly as she placed an empty beehive at the entrance of a make-shift cave just outside her backyard. The bear growled before stop playing with the rolled up creature, and made his way over to his cave. As the bear left the creature both pegasi watched as unusual armored creature un-curled itself.
“Sorry about Harry rolling you around like that.” Fluttershy said to the creature, who just shook its body and gave the mare a very neutral expression. Even after a few days of housing Grapefruit, the pegasus was still unable to understand it, as it displays of emotions seemed limited, but thankfully Fluttershy was able to tell how the creature was by its action.
“So Fluttershy, what does Grapefruit eat exactly? I don’t think I’ve seen it eat anything.” Soft Breeze asked her fellow pegasus as the creature lumbers off to a different part of the yard, as Fluttershy starts pouring chicken feed for her chickens.
“I’m not sure actually.” The butterscotch pony said. “I tried fruits and vegetables when it came around lunch time the first day it came to Equestria, but it didn’t eat anything. I then tried fish and animal food, but it didn’t eat them either.”
“Then, what does it eat?” the guard asked as she looked towards the creature, and watch it lay in a nice patch of sunlight, its metal hide gleaming in the light.
“I think it actually eats sunlight.”
“Sunlight?” the guard mimicked as she looked over to her fellow creature observer.
“After resting in direct sunlight for a few minutes, Grapefruit seems to be fine and full of energy.”
Fluttershy then looked over to the creature, watching it sun bathe for a few moments. Both mares sat down and continued to just watch the purple beast soak up the rays of the sun, and just as Fluttershy said, a few minutes later and the creature bolted to its feet and trotted about in an energetic fashion. It even curled up into a ball and rolled about for a few seconds.
“Well how about that.” Breeze said as she kept watching the creature roll about the yard, its little bug friend keeping pace. “Say, whatever happened to the first creature that came to Ponyville? Did it ever come back?”
“I don’t think so.” Fluttershy said. “From what Twilight guesses, these creatures can go through portals anywhere they want, so its hard to tell when one shows up or disappears.” A small frown came to the yellow mare as the sight of the first creature being tackled by the changelings made her feel worried about it.
“I do hope Gleam is doing alright, wherever it is.” Breeze gave a comforting pat to the caretakers back, while giving her a small smile.
“I’m sure, Gleam, is doing fine wherever it may be right now.”
Fluttershy gave her new houseguest a warm smile back as she thanked her for trying to make her feel better. The mare was then surprised to have Grapefruit roll up to her, and give her a soft nuzzle, its skin being very cool to the touch as it did so. The mare hugged the creatures head as she nuzzled back, and saying thanks to it in the process.
~~Home Base~~
Back at the researchers facility, Augustine and her team were watching the footage being played of their newest robot unit, acting like an actual caring animal as it comforts the little pegasus. The head researcher actually admitted she was surprised to see the robot be so, interactive this way, the Manufacturers really did good work with this unit.
“I gotta say, this working out really well.” Charles says as he then watches the two pegasus fly off, with the S.E.A unit rolling after them. “These ponies seem to be at ease with this new unit being around.”
“Well considering its not a lumbering giant metal cat, I’m not at all surprised.” Adam said as he stood up from the table and stretched. “I’m off to get a troll of coffee, does anyone want me to bring any specific treats?”
The group of people around the table began giving the old man a list of foods they would like, along with their coffee. The old man then left the room to fetch everyone’s desired treats, the group continued to watch the footage being played, while Aynesworth continues to fine tune the decoding of the ponies language, and trying to come up with a program to actually speak to the equines. But that task is proving to be a little harder than it would seem. As for the other two members at the table, Charles was still studying the endemic wildlife that the S.E.A unit has been compiling, along with the previous data that the R.O.V.E.R unit gathered, while Augustine just kept watch on the screen. That is until the phone in her coat pocket rang.
“Hello?”
“Miss. Augustine its Rodger from Manufacturing.”
“Greetings Rodger, is there a problem with something?”
“No ma’am. In fact I’ve got some good news. R.O.V.E.R is back up, and ready to deploy.” Rodger said with excitement over the phone.
“That is good news, deploy the old boy whenever you’re ready.”
“Will do ma’am, but before we do come and have a look at the bot, we’ve given it a few upgrades that you might want to see for yourself.”
Augustine then hanged up her phone, and proceeded to head out of the Observation Deck and made her way to the Workshop. As walked down the steps from the room she was in, the woman looked over to A.P.E as it stood in its station, and as she walks past it the memory of its creation—or more accurately the reason for its creation—came to the forefront of her mind. The image of the large robot wrestling with what was essentially a t-rex gorilla on World 2, while the research party huddled in tall trees waiting for the robot to come out the victor.
“Glad our expeditions on World 2 is over with, cause I really don’t want to go back there.” a shiver then ran down the woman’s spine as the thought of the 3rd World came to her.
“…or World 3. NO THANK YOU!” the woman said pretty loudly as she continuous down the hall, reaching the Workshop within a few more minutes of walking.
Upon entering the large chamber the familiar sounds of machinery at work, and people talking over it. but after entering the Workshop, the sight of R.O.V.E.R walking about in the large open space in front of the entrance, with its more obvious changes caught the woman’s eye.
“AH! Miss. Augustine glad you could make it, check it out!” Rodger said as he gestured to the robotic beast. “You like the changes we’ve made?”
“Not bad, the old bot needed an upgrade or two.” Augustine said as the R.O.V.E.R looked over at her with both its eye units.
“We’ve swapped out its leg units so it can be a bit more efficient.” A female workshoper said as she approached the mechanical beast. “The front legs allow not only better traversal, but the digits allow it to grip the ground better, especially the back legs! Now it will be harder to knock the poor thing over, and if it gets into fights, its able to stand its ground better.”
“And I assume the new drones are for added surveillance?” the team nodded, that’s when a stout man with a pair of goggles on spoke up.
“Like the S.E.A unit, these drones act not only as a second pair of eyes, but as mobile aerial assist units. So now the R.O.V.E.R has four laser armaments, but we’ve also added a little something extra.”
“And what’s that?” Augustine asked.
“We’ve added two smoke screen chambers under the main laser ports. So the unit is able to use it to escape much easier.” The head researcher stood there as the R.O.V.E.R walked over to her, lowering its head where the woman petted the robots head.
“Is it ready to be put back in action?” the group of engineers nodded in unison. “Then let us head to the Gate Chamber.” The group of engineers followed Augustine, and the robotic creature, out of the Workshop and down the corridor to the Gate Platform Chamber.
~~~~~
Back at the old ruins, where the R.O.V.E.R unit was first deployed, a large portal opened up where the mechanical beast emerged from. As it strolled out of the portal the machine’s twin drones zoomed out, flying all over the place scanning the area for signs of danger, but their were no signs of any enemy threats and returned to hovering around the main unit. Once the R.O.V.E.R unit has fully emerged into the world, the portal behind it snapped shut, leaving the newly upgraded mechanical beast alone in the new world. And before the metal beast did anything, it reared its head unit up as high as it could…and unleashed a roar that was reminiscent of a lions roar, but so loud that it echoed throughout the forest, announcing its return to the new world.