The crystals embedded in the wall played hell with Robocop's scanners as they tried to categorize what material they were, but Robocop's current attention was on the ponies besides him, each of whom was asking him a different question.
"Why haven't ya taken off yer helmet yet? Ah want to see yer face?" Applebloom asked him.
"I cannot without proper tools."
"Can't you move any faster? Come on slowpoke!" Scootaloo said from behind as she tried to give him a push, yet her efforts proved fruitless against the metal frame of his body. "Geez, how many criminals get away from you if all you do is walk?"
"None."
"Isn't this all...scary for you?" Sweetie Belle finished from the side. "I mean, you're in a new land with creatures that I assume you've never seen before, yet you act like this is normal for you."
"I am not programmed to be surprised or afraid. I uphold the law for all sentient beings, even if they are...ponies." Twilight frowned and looked up at him out of the corner of her eye.
"There you go with that word again. Programmed. And earlier you mentioned directives. Robocop, you are a human, you do know that right? From the way you talk and act it's almost as if you consider yourself to be a total machine." Robocop opened his mouth to reply, but his speech functions were temporarily made inoperable by the sight that greeted his visor when Twilight opened the next set of doors.
Six chairs made of a majestic white material sat in a circle around a white star in a golden floor, with a smaller throne next to the one with Twilight's mark engraved in it. More of the strange crystals surrounded the windows, but to Robocop's interest he found the windows to be crafted with emeralds instead of glass. This place would have cost a fortune...and would be a place of criminal desire.
"Yeah, I get that a lot when I bring ponies here," Twilight said with a shake of her head as she welcomed the officer into the throne room. She sat on the throne with her mark while the other ponies did the same, the small fillies taking up a single throne by themselves, one with a rainbow lightning bolt. "Please have a seat; there is much I wish to speak with you about."
Robocop sat down on the throne with the butterflies and a loud crack could be hear as he did so, startling the ponies as the seat of the chair now had a massive crack in it from his weight. Twilight and the others took a moment to register this before she cleared her throat and began to speak.
"Ooookay then, we only got a little chance to talk on the train, but there were still a few more questions I wanted to ask you," Twilight began as she flipped open a notebook, glancing at the questions. "How did you get here? You said that you were incapable of magic and that is the only way I know how to travel between worlds."
"I am not certain myself," Robocop responded as his recordings appeared before his eyes, showing him the moment he fell into the green and blackish vortex that he assumed had brought him here. "I fell into a vortex while performing my duties, so that is the most likely cause for my arrival here."
"Hmm, that does seem interesting," she mused as she wrote down his answer. Out of the corner of his eyes Robocop was aware of the fillies poking his arm with their hooves, but he did respond as they were causing no trouble. "How about the armor you wear? It seems a lot nicer than what we have for our guards and from the little I saw of you in action it seemed to stop our spells."
"Titanium laminated with Kevlar," he responded. "My armor is designed to stop whatever form of weaponry that is thrown at me. So far nothing has gotten through to finish me."
"So why are ya still wearing it?" Applejack asked him from her throne. "We're not gonna hurt ya, so there's no need to wear it around us." He turned his head as his scanners began to make a record of her, causing AJ's face to fall slightly as he stayed silent for a moment.
"This is more than armor to me," he replied after a moment, turning his attention back to Twilight. "This suit is what allows me to carry out my duty and follow my directives. It is not something that I can or would take off."
"So it's like your helmet?" Spike chimed in, getting a nod in response. Twilight pondered over her next question for a minute before her eyes glanced at his legs, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
"Scootaloo did bring up a good point, you are really slow," she muttered as Robocop looked down at his own legs. "Yet you said that you've never let a criminal escape you despite moving along as if you have all the time in the world. Please tell me how you have done so with your speed."
"My legs are armored as heavily as my chest so that I cannot easily be incapacitated by a stray shot or explosion," Robocop replied. Robocop then stood up as the paneling in his right leg moved to the side, causing the ponies to gasp as he reached down and pulled out a long, black item. He spun it once before clicking something on the side of it, then showing it to the princess. "This is why no criminal escapes me."
"Whoa!" Scootaloo said with amazement as she looked up at it, before a confused look came across her face. "Wait, what is it?"
"Beretta 93r, also known as the auto-9. In this houses a three round burst of 50. Caliber ammunition, the strongest of its kind," Robocop answered as he held it to the side of him, Twilight looking at it with interest.
"That's very interesting, but that doesn't answer my question completely," Twilight said. "What does it do?" Robocop thought about his answer for a long moment before he looked at the firearm and then to Twilight again.
"It enforces the law." The fillies next to him and the young dragon wowed at the firearm while Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, let me be more direct. Can you show me what it does?" Robocop consider saying no for a moment, as he only had a limited number of shots in his gun for an infinite number of criminals. But Twilight was his superior and he had to obey her orders, unless they conflicted with his directives. So with precision aiming he pointed the gun at a crystal hanging from the ceiling, preparing to fire when a noise filled the room.
DING-DONG!
"Huh, I wonder who that could be." Twilight asked before she looked up at Robocop. "We'll finish with show and tell later; right now I need to see to whoever's at the door." Twilight and the others hopped off their thrones and headed to the door, Robocop following behind them slowly as he holstered his gun again.
"Yes, can I-?" Twilight asked as she opened the door before her face turned bright red. Rarity and AJ walked to the side of her to see what the matter was, but the moment they saw who was at the door they both looked at each other with sly smiles before poking Twilight in the gut.
"Hello, Princess Twilight," a pony in a guard's uniform said to the princess with a low bow, Twilight's eyes never leaving him once as he performed the motion. He rose up with a smile at the other ponies before his eyes went wide as he looked past Twilight. "Look out!" he yelled as he tossed Twilight to the side before charging at the metal man behind her. Robocop caught the brash Pegasus with his fist and slammed him to the ground, where the pony coughed as Robocop placed a foot on him.
"I hope you realize what you've done by attacking an officer of the law?" Robocop asked him as he brought his fist back, but with a shriek Twilight placed herself between the fist and the pony.
"STOP! Get off of him this instant!" she screamed at Robocop, who looked at her for a moment before he removed his foot from the perpetrators chest. The pony began to wheeze as Twilight helped him back to his hooves, glare at Robocop the entire time. "Do you have ANY idea what you just did? You could have hurt him."
"He assaulted an officer of the law. He is lucky that nothing is broken."
"For the last time, you are not a law official here," she growled before turning to the pony, brushing her mane out of her face as she smiled at the guard with an embarrassed smile. "Hey Flash. Sorry about...all of that.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Flash muttered as he looked up at Robocop with narrowed eyes as he rubbed his jaw. "Is this some sort of experiment of yours or is this a common creature around these parts?"
"Actually, we were just figuring out what he was when you rang," she nervously laughed before looking past him to see a number of guards outside, all of whom had smiles on their faces, apparently from the beat down that Flash had just received. "Wait, why are you here? And why are there so many guards?"
"That what I wanted to tell you," Flash said with a serious tone as pulled out an envelope to hoof to her. "This is from Princess Celestia. She wanted to mail it to you, but she currently does not trust the mail systems or magical means of mailing this. Everything you need to know is inside." Twilight skimmed through the letter until she got to the center of it, where both of her eyes went wide with shock.
"Sombra's back?!" she half screamed, causing a number of ponies that had been listening outside to begin screaming. "Oh that's not good. And neither is this! How can he be back?!"
"As the letter says, Celestia doesn't know for certain herself, but she wanted to inform you as quickly as she could. Unfortunately with Sombra on the run, she wasn't confident of this letter reaching you except by giving it to me. Sombra would most likely tamper with the other systems," Flash said before nodding to the guards behind him, who gave him a sneer before they all started to walk away. "Sigh...the guards were stationed here by Celestia herself to keep you and your friends safe, as you are all the most likely candidates for Sombra to attack."
"That seems brash, even for Sombra," AJ said from besides Twilight. "If he is back, then he'll know that we now possess magic even greater than that of the Elements. He'd just be walking into another flank whooping!"
"Yes darling, but remember that we all need to be together for the magic to be at its strongest. If he wished, he would pick us off one by one weaken our strength considerably and with Dash out of town..." Rarity said before she walked over to one of the hunkier guards and battered her eyes at him. "However, I have little issue being protected by our finest."
"Yes...it sound like it's for the best for now," Twilight agreed as she looked down at the three fillies around her hooves. "Alright, I will contact my friends and tell them what is going on. Girls, I want you to listen to me closely. I don't want you going anywhere in Ponyville without either me or the guards with you. Sombra might try to get to us through our families. Flash, I know that you were most likely sent here to protect me, but I want you to stay with these three. They're far more vulnerable than me."
For a moment Flash's face fell before he stood up straight and saluted. "Very well Princess Twilight, if those are your orders."
"I will patrol the streets and make recording of areas this...Sombra might appear," Robocop began as he tried to walk past Twilight, but she constructed a barrier that prevented him from going any further.
"Oh no you don't! You are staying here," Twilight ordered as she gave him a regal glare. "Until I have a full assessment of you and your weaponry I do not want you leaving this castle unless with me or a guard. Am I clear?" Robocop gave her no answer, but he didn't move from where he stood. Twilight sighed and hoped that he would listen to her before she walked out of her castle, Applejack, Rarity and the fillies following them.
'I listen to my superior's orders,' Robocop silently thought as he watched them walk away, never knowing that his fist was clenching as he thought this.
/\__/\
\/ \/
"Urgh, their magical barriers have gotten far stronger than the last time I tried to take Canterlot," a dark shadow sneered underneath of a large tree, looking through the canopy of the forest to the city that rested on the side of a mountain, figuring that at any moment the streets would be swarmed with guards that would be looking for him. "Bah and here I was wondering what my two favorite princesses were up to in that secret factory of theirs. No matter, I shall learn soon enough."
The shadow slithered across the floor of the forest, making sure to stay out of any light that shown through the dark leaves that blocked out the sun. He did not like to take risks, especially since he was still far weaker than he was used to being. He took on his pony form in a particular dark part of the forest, allowing his black mane to fall across his shoulders as he pulled a map out of the darkness, narrowing his eyes at his location.
"I see. I am by...Ponyville? Say, isn't that what the new Princess Twilight and he infernal friends call home?" he asked himself with a chuckle as he reached back into the darkness and pulled out a book on the new Elements of Harmony, flipping through the pages to learn about each of them. "Oh yes, it seems that would be so. I should pay them all a visit. But as fun as it would be to slit their throats right now, in my current state it seems that I am no match for them. What to do?"
His answer came in the form of a snarling beast that leapt out of the trees, roaring at him as he spun around to face it, a smile spreading across his face as it snarled at him. "You'll do. While my magic may be too weak to influence ponies," he began as he shot a beam of darkness from his fractured horn, blasting the manticore in the eyes. "A mindless beast such as yourself is easy prey. Now then, what should I use you for?"
He turned his attention once again to the book, smiling as it rested upon the families of the mane six. "Well, I am never one who passes up the chance for a bargaining chip or three. Beast, I have something...or should I say, someponies for you to foalnap. Soon."