//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Parties and Employment Opportunities // Story: Logic and Friendship. Roger! Roger! // by Anaylze //------------------------------// There was a thud as the C-9979 landing craft landed in the forest and its massive doors opened, revealing vast amounts of cargo. 5 AATs led by a column of 4 MTTs loaded with Battle Droids, while STAP Speeders buzzed ahead of the convoy.   Out of the top of the lead AAT's hatch popped TA-175. "Landing operation complete sir" he said to Kraken in his monotone voice  "Proceed to designated coordinates"  "By your command."  Then MTTs pushed onwards though the forest, knocking down many trees as they carved a path through the forest, sending many small animals and birds fleeing.  They continued to move forwards for about 4 minutes before they came it a clearing with a large cave opening, but it appeared to have been dug out rather than a natural formation, with several burrows opening around the mouth of the cave. The MTTs parted allowing the AATs to take up position in front.  Several dozen dog-like creatures crept out of the cave, several of them wearing primitive metal armor, and the others wearing vests with pockets full of colorful gemstones. They had larger forelegs and appeared to be able to walk on two legs, as well as Kirk, a gorilla. They also had short tails with spikes on them.  The back door of the lead AAT opened and TA-175 stepped out, with a Blaster in one hand, a data pad in the other and 4 Red OOM Security Droids following him as he walked up to the large father of dogs.  "What you want from Diamond Dogs?!" One of the gruff guards grumbled, slobbering on the ground.  TA-175 stood there unaffected by the guards' threatening posture, as he was designed to be immune to intimidation.  "Greetings. We wish to speak with your leaders."  "Why you want to speak with pack leaders?" Barked the guard  "I have an employment opportunity that I calculate will be beneficial for both of us." he said in his monotone voice.  "Hmmm… okay, me go get leaders."  The guard ventured back into the cave and returned a minute or so later with 3 other diamond dogs, one grey one with a red vest filled with gems and a collar Also with gems, one tan short bulldog like one that wore a grey gem filled vest and a gem covered collar, and one large blue grey one with a grey vest and a collar also speckled with gems.  "What you bucket a bolts want?" Spoke the one in the middle  TA-175 ignored the insult and continued with his offer   "I am TA-175 of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Please identify yourselves."  "Rover" said the red vested one  "Spot" said the short one  "Fido" said the large one  TA-175 continued with his offer.  "You and your clan are now under the protection of the previously mentioned Confederacy. We present an offer that will benefit both of our groups."  "Diamond Dogs work for no one, but what is offer?"  "You will trade your abilities of mining and give us some of your metals and ores mined and we will offer you protection."   The 3 Diamond Dogs laughed  "Our guards are strong enough to protect us, no one mess with us! And we work for no one!" Rover said   "I strongly suggest you recalculate. This offer will be highly beneficial."  "We. Work. For. NO ONE!" Rover screamed at TA-175.  TA-175 calmly reached down to his data pad and pressed a button.  In perfect sync, all the MTTs behind him opened their hatches and extended their racks, 2 deploying a battalion of B1s and 2 deploying a battalion of B2s, who all stood up and activated in sync as well. They all marched forwards until they were right up on the edge of the dog's crowd of guards and miners, emitting a loud clanking with each step.  "This is your final opportunity to accept" said TA-175 "this is merely a fraction of our protective power that you are pushing away".  "And we told you we no need your help bucket heads!" Growled Fido  "Get lost!" Screamed Spot.  "Well, it seems we will not be engaging in the trade of services. TA-175 said, reaching down and pressing another button on his data pad.  All the Droids raised their blasters and pointed them at the diamond dogs.  "Wait, wait, what you doing?!" Asked Rover  TA-175 simply responded by raising his Blaster and firing 2 precise head shots at Rover and Fido, leaving smoldering holes in their heads.   Spot screamed and put his hands up but was also put down by a precise head shot from TA-175.  "Exterminate the one who do not submit." He said coldly and the Droids began to open fire on the other Diamond Dogs who began to retreat into their caves.  TA-175 stood there pleased, as he got his revenge on the disrespectful mutts, before walking back up into his AAT and contacting Kraken.  "The Natives declined the employment opportunity. Their leaders have been eliminated and the remaining are being dealt with."  "Excellent. Force prisoners to aid in construction of a base. Disobedience from them will not be tolerated."  "Yes sir." TA-175 said, as he closed the transmission and watched the fight from the top hatch of his AAT through viewfinders.  OOM-340 followed the group back to the castle, with them unlocking the front door and letting them step inside the dark entrance first.  Suddenly the lights turned on and Pinkie lept out yelling  "SURPRISE!" With confetti launching everywhere and a 'Welcome to Pony Ville' banner appearing across the ceiling.  The room was FILLED with ponies.  OOM-340 and his guards shrieked and just about fell backwards, in fact, one did.  "HI! It's me Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you! Do you like it? Do you like it? Did I surprise you?"  OOM-340 simply looked at her with a blank stare.  "Yeah, sure I guess…"  "Aw, why are you so gloomy? Come on, I'll make you smile!" Pinkie said, apparently thinking the upside-down U-shaped part of his faceplate was a frown, grabbing him and pulling him over to the food table.  "See! I didn't know what you liked so I made just about everything! I got cupcakes, muffins, candy, cakes of all flavors, pie, punch, cider, and all sorts of stuff! Do you like it?" She said smiling a huge smile  "Umm, yeah, umm, that's really nice of you…"  "Do you want your cupcake now or later?"  "I can't eat, I don't know why you organics don't get that. That's a thing for organics."  "Aw come on, of course you can!"  OOM-340 lifted the cupcake up to his "mouth"  "Nom, nom, nom" he said.  Satisfied Pinkie hopped off the go talk to the other guests.  OOM-340 elbowed a grey Pegasus with blond hair who was eating a ton of muffins.  "Hi!" she said in a bubbly voice looking up, revealing her crossed eyes.  "You want this?" He said, offering her his cupcake  "Sure! Thanks mister!"  After a 15-minute skirmish, well, it would be more accurate to almost call it a massacre as the Droids suffered almost no losses, the sound of blaster fire began to die down. B1 and B2 Battle Droids marched out of the mine escorting captured Diamond Dogs. There were Diamond Dogs of all shapes and sizes being escorted out.  TA-175 stepped out of his tank once more, to command his troops.  "What should we do with the prisoners sir?"  "Process them. Analyze their strength level. Execute the ones too weak to be of use."   "Roger, Roger. Move it brainless!" The Droid said, turning to bashing the dog in front of it with his blaster.  "Do again and I bite you!"  "Don't talk back to me fleabag! I'm in charge of you!" The droid gloated, kicking the dog and continuing to push him forwards towards a holding cell.  TA-175 grew tired of looking at the bodies of the dead ones.  "You 4, gather up and dispose of the creature's corpses. Loot the bodies for armor and gemstones, then burn them to leave no evidence. Salvage disabled Droids."  "Roger, Roger" the Droids said glumly, clearly not pleased with their task of clean up duty.  "This is almost the worst job in the Droid army. Almost…" the one muttered.  An hour had passed, and most ponies had gone home from the party to sleep, and the only ones left eventually were the 6 BFFs and Spike, along with the Droids.  "At least tomorrow's Friday" said Twilight, clearly exhausted.  "Ah need to be getting back," said Applejack  "No, no need to walk home in the dark, I'll get all of your beds ready in my room." Twilight said walking up the stairs  "Oh, darling that's so kind of you, and I thought Flutter shy was supposed to be Element of Kindness!" Said Rarity  "Element of Kindness?" Asked OOM-340. Last time he checked Kindness wasn't an element on the periodic table. Maybe his archives were out of date. Or maybe he forgot. He was kind of pushing his programming these days trying to remember all this information.  "Well sir, the Elements of Kindness is one of the 6 Elements of Harmony. In Fact, the 6 of us all represent them. Twilight can tell you more about them." Rarity said  "That's… interesting…"  "Siiirrr… how… longer… much… activate… will weeee beeee?" asked one of his B1 Guards in a long, strange way.  "Um, are you ok?" Asked Flutter shy  "IIIIm fiiinneee… pooowwweerr just loooooowwww."  "Why don't you go shut down for a little?" OOM-340 suggested.  "Roooggeeer, rooggeeeerrrrrr…" the droid said and slowly began walking up the stairs almost drunkenly.  "Siiirr… ppooowwweeerr ceells looww…" began his other guard."   OOM-340 facepalmed  "Go shut down for a little"  The droid drunkenly followed his friend upstairs.  "What was wrong with them? Are they sick?" Asked Fluttershy  "No, their power cells are just low. They need to go shut down for a little. Kind of like sleeping."  "Oh. Aren't you tired too?"  A resting period did sound nice, but OOM-340 had to remain awake to report to Kraken and receive their power cells from the Probe, but of course he couldn't tell the ponies that.  "I have larger power reserves than them" he replied. "I won't get depleted until about another hour."  "Oh".  They heard the clippity clop of Twilights hooves as she walked back downstairs.  "Ok girls, the beds are ready, now let's go get ready, for bed."  Dash had fallen asleep on a chair, as had Spike and they were both snoring loudly. Dash was woken up by Twilight lightly tapping her with her hoof.  "No, I don't want to go to school mom…" she said in her sleep before waking up. "Wha? Oh, hey Twilight."  "Time for bed Dash"  "Then why didn't you let me just sleep in the chair?"  "You didn't look comfortable. Besides, I have a much better bed for you upstairs."   "Sweet" she said groggily before floating upstairs"  Twilight turned to OOM-340  "How much longer will you be up?"  "A few more minutes. Don't worry about me."  Twilight levitated Spike in the air with her magic and began to walk upstairs with her friends.   OOM-340 sat alone on a chair in a dark room illuminated only by candlelight. Suddenly his radio buzzed in.  He quickly activated his radio and a Probe Droid's chatter was heard on the other end. To most people, the Probes chatter would sound like incomprehensible gibberish, but it was actually Droidspeak, which was like a second language to him.  "Hello? You're here with our recharger? Good… um… drop it off at the front door I'll be right there."  The Probe beeped, signaling it understood and he walked over to the front door. Outside floated one of the Viper Probe Droids from earlier, carrying 3 charge kits in its claws.  OOM-340 took them and patted the Probe on its dome, almost like a dog.  "Thanks."  The Probe didn't reply, and simply wandered off, probably to do more spying on the town at night.   OOM-340 stepped inside and put out the candle, pinching it with his fingers.  He walked up the stairs with his new recharge kits and sat down next to his fellow Droids, plugging them into them and then himself, before shutting down for the night.  Up in Twilight's bedroom, the 7 friends gathered around in their beds in a circle.  "It was very nice of you to offer us a place to stay tonight" said Flutter shy in her soft voice.  "Well, I wasn't just being a good friend. I had something I wanted to discuss in private with you girls."  "Like what Twi?" Asked Applejack  "Well, Spike has been suspicious of our new friends, he thinks they're hiding something. What do you girls think?"  "Well, they certainly are very strange creatures. I've never seen anything like them before" Flutter shy began  "They are terribly tacky and dull looking; they just seem too… industrial." Rarity said  "Yeah, I agree with Rarity, they are dull looking, they need to be about 20% cooler." Said Dash.  "They didn't seem too excited about the party, everyone loves my parties, right?" Asked Pinkie  "As a matter a fact Twi, I do think they're hiding somethin'." Applejack began "Like how they speak slow like their being careful what they say, and makin' up excuses for their slip ups, like how they all said their name was Roger, maybe it's a code word or somethin'. Ah know when somepony's lyin' and Ah can tell there's somethin' they don't want us to know."  Spike chimed in  "Or how about how they gave Twilight and I very vague answers about their origins? They said there were lots of them, and that they were built by some group called Backta… Backtoad… back-something Automata, but why? And for who? And what about those black things they hold? They hold them sometimes like some kind of weapon!"  "Yeah, that does seem pretty shady to me," said Dash.  "Well, we don't want to accuse them of anything, maybe they're just… shy? Flutter shy suggested  Applejack shook her head  "Nah, if they were shy, they wouldn't talk so loud, and they wouldn't want to talk nearly as much."  "Alright, we'll write a letter to Princess Celestia in the morning about them, until then, let's get some sleep."  Twilight said, settling under her blanket and putting out the candle