A beautiful day met Twilight and her friends as they walked around the royal gardens with large smiles on all of their faces, Rarity and Applejack talking to Flash while the CMC made faces at all of the statues that lined the garden. Twilight sat on a bench near the edge of the garden with Robocop standing beside her, a frown on his face as she talked.
"It wouldn't be anything too serious, I just want to see what you look like without your armor on," Twilight said as casually as she could, but from the cold glare that Robocop was giving her she could tell that he wasn't keen on her idea. "I mean, we could check to see if you're damaged or replace any of your damaged armor. After all you've been through I'm sure that you-"
"Thank you for the concern Princess Twilight, but my internal sensors would inform me if any part of me was damaged or not functioning properly," Robocop coldly said as he cut her off.
"I'm sorry if I'm pushing so much, it's just that we have nothing like you in Equestria," Twilight murmured as she took a close look at Robocop's helmet with scientific curiosity. "I just really want to know how the humans managed to make something...sorry, somepony like you! You're incredible!"
"Incredible is not the word I would use," Robocop muttered, Twilight tilting her head at his words with curious eyes.
"You're a technological marvel, something that we could never replicate, at least not without years of researching somepony like you," Twilight explained, but Robocop was barely listening to her at that point. He instead watched the fillies as they looked up at statues, laughed amongst themselves and behaved like children. He then slightly turned his head so that Flash and the other mares were within his field of vision, allowing him to watch them talk normally with each other. He couldn't remember the last time he had a normal conversation with another human.
"Um...you ARE somepony right?" Twilight asked him, regaining Robocop's attention. "I mean, there is a heart and soul inside of that suit, right?"
"I do not know anymore," Robocop responded weakly. Twilight opened her mouth to ask another question when an explosion could be heard and all eyes turned towards the city below, where smoke could be seen rising into the air along with cries of panic. "Crime in progress. Officer en route." Robocop stood up and began to march towards the exit of the gardens, but Twilight cast a spell that created purple spheres around all of the ponies and Robocop and picked them up into the air with her.
"Stay here and stay safe!" Twilight called out to the fillies below her as the five flew towards the source of distress. From above the ponies and officer could see a massive crater in the center of the road that was the cause of the smoke, but they could also see a pony sitting next to the crater as if they were waiting for something. Twilight descended before the mare and released the spheres, allowing the group to assess the situation.
"Halt. You are under arrest for the suspicion of..." Robocop began until his visor informed him of who the pony was that sat near the crater. According to his records she was the very same pony who he had retrieved a purse for the previous night, but now she had deep green eyes unlike her blue ones that he had on record. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, it's about time you showed up," she said in a voice that did not match what Robocop had in his databanks, causing him to narrow his eyes as his systems went to work identifying the current voice being used. "I mean, the only way to get your attention is to unleash a giant monster or blow something up. You remember me, don't you?"
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
"Suspect identified as Sombra, who is wanted for arrest," Robocop confirmed as he reached down and pulled out his firearm, pointing it right between the mares green eyes. "I remember you. You are under arrest. Stand down and come quietly or there will be trouble." Sombra chuckled at his words and he began to saunter forward in the mare's body.
"That wasn't quite what I meant when I asked if you recognized me. I meant the mare who's body I'm using." Robocop narrowed his eyes at Sombra's words, not sure what he was planning. "What, you don't remember her? This little host of mine is the very same mare that you helped out last night. Now I know what you must be thinking, why would she be helping me? Well I’ll tell you what. I'll answer that question if you answer one of mine. Serve the public trust, uphold the law and protect the innocent. Those are your directives, right?"
"Correct," Robocop growled through gritted teeth as he kept the gun aimed at the center of the pony’s skull, getting Sombra to chuckle.
"Good. Alright then, my turn to answer your question. She isn't working for me. She's under my will, my command: forced to do my bidding despite her not wanting to. Wanna see?" Sombra asked with a chuckle before the green vanished from her eyes and they were replaced with the blue that Robocop remembered her having. Her horrified eyes locked onto Robocop and her fear bubbled to the surface.
"Please, help me!" she screamed before tendrils of darkness covered her face again, turning her eyes green as Sombra's evil smile returned, much to the absolute horror of the ponies there.
"You...you monster," Twilight whispered, Sombra bowing at her words with a smile.
"So as you can see, officer, she doesn't willing want to help me, but I control her now. You can say she's an innocent in all of this," Sombra said with a loud laugh. "So there you go, that's what's going on."
"Release the hostage Sombra and I will go easy on you," Robocop ordered, but Sombra simply smirked in reply as he began to walk forward, tendrils of darkness forming behind him as he did so.
"No officer, I think I'm going to resist," Sombra said with the mare's mouth as the tendrils shot forward and drove themselves into Robocop's armor, knocking him back a bit. Robocop growled in reply as recovered and took aim between the center of the mare's eyes.
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
Robocop found himself unable to pull the trigger, unable to defend himself as the tendrils continued to pound away against his armor. The assault only ceased when Twilight created a sphere of magic around Robocop to block the tendrils attacks.
"Come on Robocop, you've got to pull yourself together," Flash said to Robocop as he let the officer lean against him for support. "If you don't stop him, Sombra will probably kill the mare!"
"Oh he wishes he could stop me Flash, but he can't," Sombra chuckled as he came to a stop twenty feet in front of Robocop, who glared at the mare Sombra controlled with rage. "Protect the innocent. Serve the public trust. They're both part of his directives. At first I wondered if it was just a code he lived by...or a code that was programmed into his brain. Seems it was the latter."
"What in tarnation are ya going on about?!" Applejack snarled as she went to charge Sombra, but a tendril knocked her back before she could take two steps.
"The body of this mare has done nothing wrong. She is an innocent bystander," Sombra explained as Rarity helped AJ back to her hooves. "And since two of his directives translate to protect the innocent, he can't lift a finger to hurt her since she's not the one in control. He can't touch me." The ponies all looked at Robocop with confused eyes, wondering what he was going to do.
"So we work with it. Come on Robocop, we're not going to hurt her, we're just going to subdue her so we can get Sombra out of her," Flash tried to explain to Robocop, who was still frozen in place. "We'll still be protecting her, just from herself!"
"You're wasting your breath and my time Flash. If he had an option around the directives don't you believe he would have tried it by now?" Sombra laughed as Robocop said nothing in response. "Now I understand perfectly. Your directives are hardwired into your brain, like a machine. And that's what you are, aren't you? A machine that can't go against its programming." Sombra's victory laugh was cut off by a blast of magic that went by his head.
"Robocop might not be able to fight you, but we're still more than capable!" Twilight roared as she took to the skies, firing stunning spells at the mare as she did her best not to hurt her body. But because she was trying not to hurt her, her spells were not nearly as powerful and made the easy for Sombra to destroy.
"I wasn't planning on killing you or your friends today Twilight, but I won't pass up the chance when it is presented before me!" Sombra roared as he took to the skies after her, becoming a tendril of dark magic that slammed into a barrier of Twilight's before driving the both of them into the street. Twilight blasted Sombra off with a pulse of magic, but as Sombra cried out in pain Twilight realized what she had done.
"Be careful Twilight, or you might kill this here hostage," Sombra chuckled as he rose back to his hooves. "Now then, hold still while I gut you!" Twilight's friends rushed into the battle to aid her, leaving Robocop to watch from the sidelines and unable to do anything.
'He is trying to kill them. That is a crime!' he realized within his mind. And as soon as he thought those words the answer he was looking for appeared before his eyes.
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
Robocop took aim with his gun at Sombra again and prepared to pull the trigger, but right before he could do so more words appeared on the screen beneath the directive.
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
Robocop felt his arm being lowered from Sombra against his wishes, the directive to protect the innocent clashing with his directive to bring down Sombra and uphold the law. Sombra didn't miss what Robocop was doing, but his lack of concentration gave Twilight the edge she needed to send a blast of magic through his shield and into Sombra's chest, sending him sprawling into the streets below.
"Give it up Sombra; you can't beat me as an alicorn!" Twilight called down to Sombra, who was struggling to his hooves while also struggling to find a way around his current predicament. But then his eyes flashed to the side to see some bystanders that had been drawn in by the fighting, giving him his option. He spiraled into dark smoke and slithered over to the ponies, appearing behind one of them and grabbing them by the throat. The pony began to call for help while Sombra created a small barrier around them, laughing all the while.
"Sorry Twilight, but there's still one last game I want to play!" Sombra yelled to the ponies as a dark blade formed in his hooves, placing itself right at the captive’s throat. Twilight fired a spell at the barrier, but instead of breaking the barrier absorbed the spell. "That won't work princess, as this barrier will absorb any magic it comes into contact with. The only way to get to me is to shatter the barrier with a physical strike, but if I see any of you try to come near me I'll cut this one’s throat."
"Then what do you want us to do? You know you can't escape!" Flash yelled, getting Sombra to laugh even louder.
"I want to see what happens next! Come on officer, I'm clearly endangering another pony’s life here! Go ahead and uphold the law! We both know that if you fire that weapon I’ll never be able to react to the attack in time and you'll stop me," Sombra informed Robocop before his sinister grin returned. "But then you'd be hurting an innocent and you can't do that. But then you won't be upholding the law! So choose tin man, choose if you are able to!"
Robocop took perfect aim at Sombra, who wasn't even bothering to move his head into a more protected area. But as he prepared to fire the trigger, again the words that held him back before flashed up on the screen.
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
Robocop's arm began to lower before the other directive followed.
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
"What's the matter? Can't pick on your own? Then let me help! If you don' choose in the next thirty seconds then both of them will die!" Sombra roared as he pressed the blade against the hostage’s throat, causing her to cry out for help as a bit of blood began to slide down her throat.
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
Robocop struggled to keep his aim upon Sombra as he tried to figure out a way to fulfill both directives. If he shot Sombra to uphold the law, then he would be killing an innocent. But if he didn't kill Sombra, then he wouldn't be protecting an innocent or upholding the law.
"Twenty seconds left!" Sombra laughed as he held the blade closer.
'Directive: Uphold the law.
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
Robocop desperately wracked his brain to think of a way to stop Sombra without having to hurt the innocent mare that he was controlling, but no answer presented itself. Static began to form in Robocop's eyes from the dilemma and the gun in his hand began to shake.
"Robocop, do something!" Flash yelled at him from the side.
"Ten seconds!"
Robocop's vision was nearly all static as he tried to find a compromise, his systems beginning to freeze up at the failure to complete either of the directives. His auditory sensor went down as the program designed to shut him down if he disobeyed a directive starting to attack all of his systems, forcing him to crash.
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
"Five, four..."
'Directive: Uphold the law.'
'Directive: Protect the innocent.'
'Directive: Serve the public trust.'
"Three, two..."
'Directive: Uphold the law!'
'Directive: Serve the public trust!'
'Directive: Protect the innocent!'
"One!"
"Robocop!"
BANGBANGBANG!
The ponies screamed as the gunshots tore through the barrier and embedded themselves in the skull of the pony that Sombra had controlled, dropping her to the ground without another sound. The pony that had been captured fled to the princess, fearfully sobbing as Twilight did her best to comfort her. Flash looked to Robocop, who stood silently with fists clenched tight.
"Hey, don't be too hard on yourself. You made an impossible choice," Flash said in hopes to comfort him, but Robocop said nothing in reply to the guard. "You alright?" Flash asked again. When Robocop failed to respond, Flash poked him in the leg...and caused Robocop to crash face first into the ground.
"Robocop! What's wrong?!" Flash desperately called out to him as the others rushed to his side, but the officer said nothing in reply. Robocop did not respond to any of their questions, nor did any kind of force get a response out of him. And while the ponies tried to figure out what had happened, the tendrils of smoke that slipped away knew full well what this meant.
Robocop had crashed.