//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Proper Introductions // Story: Logic and Friendship. Roger! Roger! // by Anaylze //------------------------------// Spike got out of bed and yawned. It was the beginning of a new day. Twilight was still asleep, so Spike decided to venture downstairs and make breakfast. On the way down he passed the guest room, and noticed the door was open. Inside were 3 tan statues that Spike didn't remember being there. Maybe Twilight was going to dress them up in armor and have them stand around the castle as knights. Spike giggled at the thought, because Twilight chose not to have guards at her castle so her friends could easily get in, so this seemed a little unlike her. Spike decided that Pancakes would make a nice breakfast, and after putting on a chef hat and apron, he began to hum and got to work. Upstairs in the guest room, a jolt suddenly went through the 3 figures, and they all stood up and unfolded into their full heights and looked at each other before walking out of the guest room and down the stairs.   Twilight slowly woke up and walked to her bathroom where she brushed her teeth and combed her mane. She was in the middle of triple checking that she did everything when suddenly Spikes scream echoed throughout the castle. Twilight dashed downstairs in an instant.  "TWILIGHT! THERE ARE MONSTERS IN THE HALL!"  "Shh, Spike calm down, you'll wake the whole town! They're not monsters, they're just some nice creatures I met overnight."  "Well, what are they?!"  "They're some kind of creature the girls and I found last night. They seem to be friendly, and they are all named Roger, at least that's what they said, but other than that I'm not sure what they are. I offered them a place to stay, and I'll ask them more about themselves today. Just calm down and we'll discuss it with them over breakfast."  Twilight walked over to her 3 new friends  "Good morning! I trust you slept well?"  "Oh yes, we have gotten time to close down like that for a while!"   "Are you ready for breakfast? Spikes making Pancakes."  "What's breakfast?"  There was an awkward silence…  "You… you don't know what breakfast is? It's the meal you eat to start the day…"  "Oh, yeah it's an organic thing. Yeah, we don't do that, but we'll still sit down."  Twilight was puzzled but brought them over to the dining hall and seated them. Spike came out with a plate stacked high with Pancakes, syrup, butter and orange juice.  The Droids just sat there and watched them eat.  Twilight ate her breakfast quickly and began asking questions once she finished.  "Are you sure there's nothing I can get you? Juice? Water?"  "Well maybe an Oil Bath would be nice, but other than that no."  Twilight gave a puzzled look  "Okay then… but can you us a bit more about yourselves? Are you really machines? Where are you from? How did you get here? What's this thing? she asked pointing toward the Blaster.  "Alright. We're automated life forms known as Droid, particularly B1 series and we were made by Baktoid co- er, just Baktoid Automata." He decided it was best to keep out combat from Baktoid Combat Automata to avoid any hostility. They seemed rather peaceful, but he wasn't sure how they would react if they knew he was a soldier.  "Ooo! Fascinating! So, there are others like you?" Twilight asked with great interest.  "Yes, lots of us."  "How did you get here?"  OOM-340 was really hoping she wouldn't re-ask that question. He decided he would think of an answer later.   "Can we come back to that one?"  "Sure. How about… what that thing does?"  "Well, that's an E-5. It's used to… its… it's a… tool. For solving situations.  "Interesting, can I try it?"  "Uh… no."  "Pretty please?"  "No…"  "Pleeeeaaaasee?" Begged Twilight, making a pouty face and her pupils enlarging to an enormous size like puppy eyes and sparkling.  "No… please stop doing that it creeps me out."  Twilight looked down disappointed.  "What about those yellow markings on you? Are you special? Like an alpha or something?"  "Well, sort of. I'm an OOM series B1 so my programming is a bit better and I'm in charge of groups. These markings alert others to that. I'd imagine it's kind of like how you have both wings and… what is that thing on your head?"   "This?" Asked Twilight, gesturing to her horn "that's my Horn. All Unicorns have them and we use it to do magic, Like this." Twilight levitated another pancake onto her plate.  OOM-340 got simulated chills as it reminded him of tales he'd heard about Jedi, and their ability to move things using their mind. And how they'd cut down entire battalions of Droids...  "You, ok?"  "Uh huh."  "Anyways, I used to be just a normal Unicorn, but I became The Princess of Friendship, and got my wings."  "So, the winged ones are Princesses? Like that blue one with colorful hair? She seemed kind of egotistic."  Twilight chuckled "well, not quite. There are 3 standard kinds of ponies. Earth ponies like Applejack and Pinkie Pie, Unicorns like Rarity, and Pegasi like Rainbow Dash and Flutter shy. Now there is also 4th type called Alicorns, which is what I am, and only Princesses can become Alicorns, like Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance."  "Oh." OOM-340 simply replied  "So how did you get here anyways?"  OOM-340 decided to play dumb on this one.  "Well, um, I don't know. We were flying through space and suddenly crashed… here. Wherever here is?"  "Well, here, this is the land of Equestria. It's ruled by two Alicorn Princesses, Celestia and Luna. I actually have a map upstairs, what to see?"  This was going better than he thought. If he could get a quick scan of the map's files, he could send it directly to Kraken and half of their problems would be solved.  "Sure!"  "Alright, follow me. Do your friends want to come?"  "We'll follow to protect our Commander."  "Oh, you don't need to worry about him, he's in good hooves!" She said, hugging him, which made OOM-340 uncomfortable.  "Yeah, but it's our job"  "Alright if you really want to, you can come to protect him from nonexistent danger." she said rolling her eyes and walking upstairs.  She brought them to a room with 7 chairs in a circle, around a table with a seemingly holographic map of the land on it, complete even with buildings and trees, all in color.  "This is the Cutie Map, and it shows all of Equestria."  "That looks kind of like a hologram"  "Maybe, but it's a magical map. It can send people places when they're needed to solve problems."  "Oh."  Suddenly Spike called from downstairs  "Oh, I'll be right back. Feel free to look at the map but please don't touch anything."  With that, she stepped out of the room and down the stairs.  OOM-340 quickly walked around the table, looking for a control panel with a data disk, every projector table had one. He searched and searched, but he could not find one. He touched the map, but its hand simply went through it, like a hologram.  "Hmm…"  Downstairs, Twilight went to see what Spike wanted.  "Yes Spike?"  "Are you sure it's a good idea to be showing them all of this stuff? What if they're here to spy on us, or what if they're some kind of pony-eating monsters?! They could be dangerous!"  "Spike, they're not dangerous. They're just friendly and curious! I'd imagine any pony who suddenly wound up here would be."  "What about their Eek-5 or whatever it's called? That looks like some kind of weapon. You don't find it weird that they all carry them, and how do those other two refuse to leave the other one and submit to anything he says? How about them all having the same name? All I'm saying is that I'm suspicious. I think we should write a letter to Princess Celestia about them, see what she thinks."  Twilight sighed  "Alright, if it makes you feel better, we can write to her later. Now, it's impolite of me to keep a quest waiting."  With that she walked back upstairs.  OOM-340 frantically searched around for a disk or something else that could hold the intel. Suddenly he heard the clip-clop of her hooves on the floor. He got up from under the table, banging his head on it and stumbling backward clumsily into a wall.  Twilight walked in "are you ok? I heard a noise like you fell."  "Uh yeah I'm ok" said OOM-340, picking himself up.  "Why don't we give you a tour of the town? Give you a bit of a feel for it since you're probably going to stay here for a while.   "I don't see a reason why not."  "Perfect I'll tell Spike and we'll be on our way."